“And being a Catholic does not guarantee you anything either.”
Yes, and no. Being Catholic does not mean you are saved. Being Catholic does mean that you have access to the means of salvation as given by Christ to the Church.
Being a Christian means you are already saved...And when you are saved, you are added to the church...There are no unsaved people in the church, the Body of Christ...
As we all do. I don’t have a man in a booth that comes and tells me I am forgiven. He is just as sinful as I am. We are all without sin. Thus, only Jesus Christ can forgive sin. Not some man behind a curtain. Would you trust some man behind a curtain to say, “Okay, Bill, you are forgiven. Go and sin no more.” Yet, you will sin. And he, the man behind the curtain, HAS NOT AUTHORITY to tell you you are forgiven. He does not have the authority to forgive my sin. I put that in Christ’s hands only. He made that clear in the Scriptures that HE was the ONLY way.