That sounds very heartening. In Mormonism, the Temple ceremonies are vital to your exaltation. Without them, you will not receive exaltation and live in Celestial glory.
Adherance to specifications like a full 10% tithe, and abstaining from coffee, tea, alcohol and tobacco, Chruch attendance, and covenant keeping, are requirements of attending the Temple. So you can see exaltation is tied comletely with peforming works of the flesh. This precisely is what I stand against. Mormons believe salvation (eternal life) is given to everyone through the atonement of Christ....but to truly attain exaltation you MUST be a member of the LDS Church in good standing by adhering to all the dots and tittles (or have someone do your work by proxy after you are dead). This belief is entirely in opposition to everything Christ taught.
If these types of salvational rites in required ordinances, covenants or laws are not required by Catholic Church (be it Orthodox or Roman) then perhaps I should have a further look.
We believe, as you might know, that Christ Jesus is physically, literally, and fully present in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. All the pomp flows from that theological premise: we decorate our churches, vestments, and vessels because they are consecrated to the service of God, and because they literally contain God in a more real sense than even the Jewish Temple contained Him.
And, as you know, Protestants do NOT believe the bread and the wine turn into the actual Body and Blood of Christ.
How an annual reminder meal of God's salvation ever got turned into a 'every time you enter the doors ritual' escapes me.
We have our Church precepts too, but we are most certainly not a "works" religion in the sense that you can get to heaven just by *doing* stuff or just by being Catholic. If you do all the stuff (go to Mass, receive the sacraments) but your heart is dead to God's grace, then all the rites you participate in will not only NOT get you to heaven, but they could be a sacrilege (i.e. receiving Communion with mortal sin).
And as far as just being Catholic getting you to heaven, well, the best evidence that we don't believe that is to read Dante's Inferno and see how many bishops and Popes he put in hell!!