Hi Carla.

Yes, I know some don't consider Catholics to be Christian. That is just silly, in my opinion, because for 1500 years, the Catholic Church WAS the Christian Church. As Catholics, we celebrate church heritage, tradition, and wisdom of the church founders. Protestants rely only on the Bible.

I believe everyone who accepts Christ as personal saviour is a Christian. As a Catholic Christian, I believe that true faith is "belief + action". That we need a LIVING FAITH. Protestants believe that faith is enough, and that church tradition is useless. So, you can murder someone or do what you like, it has no meaning whatsoever, because faith in Christ is all through a philosophy of "Once saved always saved".

In my personal opinion, this is leading Christianity into all kinds of weird directions, because the further they go from the starting point (Catholicism) they get more and more wrong messages.

Catholics have always believed in ever-virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception, because that is what the early church founders believed. Mary took a vow of celibacy as a young girl, and was married to Joseph (because it became necessary for her to marry) who was much older than her because he would honour that vow. This is what the church has always taught. Protestants say this is rubbish because it's not in the Bible (neither is trinity in the Bible). But the early church fathers decided what was going to be in the BIble and not. Mary was born with Sanctifying Grace. No other human being has been born with it. This means Mary was "right with God" from the moment of her conception - hence The Immaculate Conception (This is the Orthodox view. RC word it differently in that they relate it to original sin). Early Protestants like Luther also believe in the Immaculate Conception. God's revelations over the years i.e. St Bernadette at Lourdes have confirmed that. God still speaks in Catholicism. They have always not circumcised, have always held up human life to be sacred and contraception "unnatural", always promoted the ability for sexual control, and the communion of saints.

That doesn't mean I agree with everything in the Orthodox/Catholic church, but they are closer to what I believe than Protestants.