I'm a born again who goes to a Christ centered Bible teaching church. Our pastor prayed for the Pope a couple of Sundays back and also prayed that his successor would also be a man of great faith. This pastor in Tennessee is better off letting God decide who's a disciple and who isn't. He obviously needs to re-read Mark 9:38-40--
"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." "Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us."
Thank you. I try to show that verse to certain traditionalist Catholics, too. Those who won't hear it won't hear it.
The truth is that the Council of Trent did condemn "protestants," but Vatican II is also infallible, and calls Protestants our brothers in Christ. How can both be true?
When the Catholic Church condemned protestants in 1541, it meant by "protestant" those who had been in the Catholic Church and had left ("apostasized") to join a faction which was at the time warring against the Church. Today, when the Catholic Church refers to Protestants, it is referring to people who are continuing to follow the beliefs about Christ which they have received from their Father and Mother, whom they are commanded to honor.
According to the teaching of "sacraments of desire" in the Catholic Catechism, if a Protestant, by means of a belief in an un-Catholic doctrine, is impeded from faith in the Catholic Church, but loves Christ and seeks to do His will, he receives sacraments spiritually, and those sacraments do have effect. Baptisms by Protestants are considered effective for receiving the grace afforded by Baptism.