Nevis, forgive me if I am making any false assumptions. It appears that you are rather upset with some elements of behavior on this forum. As a fellow Roman Catholic, I can understand that certain comments can come across as offensive or in some cases outright anti-Catholic. I've found through my time here that there are a few things that are helpful to keep in mind when reading such comments. First, many of the members who make these comments were at one point Roman Catholics themselves and have had negative experiences that we do not fully understand. They may be coming from a place of hurt, misunderstanding, etc and a bit of negativity toward the Church is understandable and I think excusable. Second, many of the comments are made out of misunderstanding or lack of knowledge and I don't believe the intention behind them is to be offensive or hurtful. There is so much misinformation about the Roman Catholic Church floating around that it's easy to form opinions on false information. Many Catholics themselves have strange ideas about what the Church teaches and perpetuate the false narratives. It can be extremely frustrating when we encounter negative comments that we know to be untrue but I think we should show some grace to our brothers and sisters in Christ. I do my best to assume the best unless those in question clearly show that they meant to wrong me and even then I try to remember that I do not know their experiences or motivations. I've come to realize that certain members have directly opposing views to mine and reading their posts will more than likely cause me annoyance and result in uncharitable thoughts so I tend to skip over their responses. Perhaps that's something you could consider. I sincerely hope none of that has caused you any offense. I'd like nothing more for you to have an enjoyable and positive experience on this forum.
Yes though the Roman church makes many false claims and promotes many unhelpful practices that are pastorally harmful at best and outright spiritually abusive at worst. That being said there are millions of faithful Roman Christians and Rome remains a part of the one true church though clearly not the true church.
Nervis, rest assured the RCC is very Christian but whose certain practices are in error. Fortunately the English Reformation cleansed the Faith of those errors and schisms commonplace at that time within the RCC. Since then we have rightfully reaffirmed our position as a Church - one of the parts in the full Body of Christ - that embraces the complete Christian Gospel that was taught in the undivided church for 1000 years, in an English patrimony. For those searching on this forum, as a member of the Continuing Movement do I personally profess that we are perfect? Hardly. But I do believe our theological and liturgical underpinnings provide the appropriate foundation in worshiping our Lord in its fullness “…in holiness and righteousness all our days…”? Absolutely. As a result, I would like to think this branch is a wonderful venue for any “disenfranchised” (terrible word but the best I’ve got right now) orthodox Catholic looking for a church home.
Certainly some of the RCC is Christian, and equally probably some are not because there is no church (Anglican, CofE, Calvinist, Arminian etc) that is perfect this side of heaven: all (humans) have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God so I would say, let him who is perfect cast the first stone. We pray “forgive us OUR trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” but we each have our own ‘pet’ dislikes we are unwilling to give up easily. This is what ‘grace’ means
Are Catholics Christian? The Nicene creed declares the church that Jesus Christ described here is 'catholic', meaning universally world wide and headed by himself. It seems to me that St. Paul was convinced, according to his statement here, that God no longer holds their sins against the human race, (i.e. the world), ever since he was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Christ came to save 'the world' not to judge it. So, everyone is 'saved' by their saviour, who is the Christ, but only Christians KNOW IT and appropriately respond to the knowledge of it by 'doing as He says'. Believing, does not make Jesus Christ become our saviour. HE already IS everyone's saviour before we even know it or appreciate it or even believe it. He became the saviour of the WORLD when he died upon a cross. Therefore anyone in the ROMAN catholic Church who knows that Christ is their saviour and has appropriately responded to that knowledge by daily 'doing as HE says', is 'of the household of faith', therefore only they in it can be 'Christian'. .