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The reason you cannot fathom the Church as a single person is because the Protestant communities of faith are definitionally diverse, -- and therefore are not church in the sense the word is used in its singular form in the Gospel (it is also used in the sense of "local church" allowing for plural), and by Catholics. This si not to say that there are no diversity at all in the Catholic Church: there are legitimate areas left for the individual mind, and there is a vast array of legitimate liturgical and monastioc practices. But we have doctrinal unity because Christ taught a single doctrine. We have it. You don't.

"We have it and you don't" nyaa, nyaa, nyaa! Please, your piety is underwhelming me. What you have been convinced is the true church is simply a church that at one time was local (Rome), small and independent in it's hierarchy. Once the Roman Emperor Constantine became infatuated with it in the 4th. century, and he established Christianity as the state religion, then the church in Rome began her descent into the abyss of politics, wealth and power. The organization today that has co-opted the title of universal church - which at one time meant all the believers in Christ across the many local churches - has never reversed course from the power grabbing past that saw it decline into paganized idolatry and superstition. Even today, those vestiges remain.

This "vast array of legitimate liturgical and monastioc (sic) practices" where legitimate areas are left to the individual mind seems to be only a benefit you award to yourselves because you state there is unity. The various non-Catholic Christian denominations that are legitimately followers of Christ can also lay claim to doctrinal unity in the major tenets of the faith that are laid out in Scripture and, most all of them, you claim as well. So, tell me, how is it that you can enjoy the liberty in Christ of practices of minor theological importance, yet deny that same liberty to others who are in Christ every much as you?

The problem I see is not so much that you don't believe others outside of your religion can be truly members of the universal church, but by openly acknowledging it, you must release the power you once relished and killed for.

What you have been convinced is the true church is simply a church that at one time was local (Rome), small and independent in it's hierarchy

Where did you get that? The Early Church (pre-Constantine) was far less centralized than the Roman Catholic Church is today, for reasons of being underground for most of its early life and the logisticsl impossibility of robust communication. These were local Churches in obedience to their bishops, and most important Churches were not even the Church in Rome. But they were all Catholic Chruches because they believed the same thing; when one or more Churches deviated in anything doctrinal, an apostle would write the letter to fix the problem, and after the passing on of the Apostles, a figure of inherited apostolic authority would do the correcting, or a Church Council would be held. This was nothing like the Protestant system os self-appointed pastors and divergent doctrines.

how is it that you can enjoy the liberty in Christ of practices of minor theological importance, yet deny that same liberty to others who are in Christ every much as you?

Again, where is it that I denied you following whatever practice you have? The problem the Protestants have -- all of them, whether they recognize it or not -- is that they do not obey the scripture because of the error that unites, them, the false doctrines of Faith Alone and Bible Alone. That I deny you because it is error and endangers your salvation gravely. That on top of that you are doctrinally diverse is merely a testimony to the absence of divine leadership, but you surely have the freedom to follow your consceinces, at least in the political sense.