Thank you for this statement. As an elder in a protestant Church, I often confront anti-Catholicism which makes claim to what appear to be non-biblical practices by Roman Catholics. I caution them that their conclusion is not so simple and that the Catholic practices are well thought out and documented and to their mind strongly biblical.
In fact it is lazy of them to automatically dismiss a practice without fully understanding. Also, if they knew church history they would see that the foundation us biblical protestants are standing on was first established by the Church we call Catholic.
Based on the newest inventions of some of the protestant Church which include that Jesus is not the only way and that the sexual immorality is not a constant but relative to our culture, I have come to appreciate the authority the Roman Church has in the hierarchical structure.
Unfortunately, many Catholics are unaware of the biblical origins of their practices and seem to follow them unaware. This causes others to denigrate the traditions without doing the harder study that would have them more fully understand the issues they think are so clear when they are not.
Thank you for your reasoned response.