I had an ex-coworker who is Catholic go out to lunch with me. We were talking about his new job, and he said that he worked with a Christian who he could not stand. The emphasis was on Christian.
I said, “I thought you were Christian?” He replied, “No, I am Catholic, not a Christian”.
I responded, “Oh.”
It never struck me til then that there still was such a deep schism in Christendom.
I don't think that proves anything about the depth of the schism in Christendom, it only proves that your coworker is ... well ... ignorant, of his own religion.
I don’t think there really is such a schism. It’s just we self-identify with the label Catholic, and tend to get criticized by many in the ‘Bible based churches’ (not ‘saved’, etc). They call themselves ‘Christians’ with no other identifier, and refuse the Prot label.
So... after awhile....
But I think it’s more terminology than anything reflective of something much deeper.
In my parish, most of the time we (well, the priests) refer to ourselves as Christians.