OK, but that’s not a weakness confined to Protestants alone. Would, say, a womyn priest who blesses gay marriages and pretends to administer the Sacrements be Catholic?
Of course not. Now, is a woman minister who blesses gay marriages and pretends to administer the Eucharist be Protestant?
No, the womyn church folks are not Catholic in belief, and they’ve actually already been formally excommunicated. Even our wimpy bishop here actually forbade a group of them from holding some bizarre function in a local parish. His next step should be to can the pastor, but I think he’s too timid to do so.
However, overall I don’t think you’re understanding my point. There are flakes in every religious group. However, they are just that - flakes. They eventually move away and are no longer considered members of that group, either by themselves or, certainly, by the group.
However, in the Catholic Church, they have no effect on doctrine. They cannot claim to be Catholic anymore, even if they hang around for awhile without being formally excommunicated. But they still have not changed Catholic doctrine in any way.
In the Protestant churches, however, these flakes feel that this means they should go out and set up another church, but one that focuses on their emphasis. There is no overall “Protestant Church,” and hence no mechanism for controlling this. So even orthodox, Creedal Protestants end up with bizarre doctrines being attributed to them from these people who have had their own “revelations” and developed their own fragments of doctrine into yet another church. But there’s no overall standard for rejecting them, and no authority to do so.
That was my point, not that the Catholic Church is without flakes - believe me, some days I think they outnumber the orthodox, among whom, thank goodness, the Pope is included!