Well, the Bible that the Catholic church claims it wrote testifies to it being otherwise. John tells us that what he wrote was so that one could believe on Jesus. The official opinions of men have nothing to add to the simple gospel message found in Scripture.
and that salvation does not require good works in imitation of Christ, but solely an intellectual faith in Christ.
Nobody here has ever stated that. You need to reread any comments about what salvation based on faith are actually saying.
Naturally since this is a gospel that he writes. However he does say that once one believes he is automatically saved. Faith is what we do.