God is not found through intellectual reasoning but by the drawing of the soul to God by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said that no one comes to the Father unless he is drawn.
.as far as your lady story just how old was this "newly saved" lady with years of dedicated service behind her????
Further evidence that Catholicism teaches a works based salvation.
Catholics just cannot grasp that all those works did not mean a thing without the new birth.
And yes, people can do good things without being saved. Therein lies the danger of Catholic teaching. People who have an intellectual assent to the teachings of the church, and add works to them, end up thinking that they are saved when in reality they aren't because they have never been regenerated.
I fear far too many are like the Jews of Paul’s day.
“10 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”