Yes, James said that. What he was saying was that those works justify us before men, not before God. In other words, those good works are evidence before other men of what God has already done in us. Our works don’t contribute to our salvation, they are evidence of it. There is no conflict between Paul and James.
It doesn’t matter what Catholic doctrine is. It only matters what Scripture says.
“It doesn’t matter what Catholic doctrine is. It only matters what Scripture says”
You’re right. But Catholic doctrine and the Bible are the same, afterall it was Catholic scholars who determined what was divinely inspired scripture and the true word of God. It has always amazed me how protestants live and die by the word of the Catholic document known as the Holy Bible. The Catholic Church came before the Bible, not the other way around.