Officially, there is much common ground. We share in a common baptism and can declare together that we are part of the Church, although not in communion.
Amen! This is exactly true.
Generally speaking, we all accept at least a handful of Ecumenical Councils as binding on the faith.
Generally speaking, for the Protestant, the notion of a dogma being "binding" on a Christian is unheard of. On the other hand, it could be said that the teachings of many of the early Councils were descriptive of the true doctrine of Christ as revealed in the Scripture, but never "binding" in the same sense a Catholic would understand.
Remember, most Protestants adhere to 'sola Scriptura' (by Scripture alone), so, for them, councils can only be instructive, but never dogmatic.
We profess Jesus as Lord, accept the same New Testament canon, and much more depending on what denomination of Protestant Christianity we are talking about.
I went from Evangelical to Pentecostal to Lutheran to Catholic, so I can confirm this to be true. While virtually all have valid baptisms (except some Oneness Pentecostals who baptize in the name of Jesus only--I never got involved with these folks myself). The Evangelical and Pentecostal groups both had their own style of worship services that were extemporaneous but everything happened generally at the same time. The evangelical group I attended (where I was baptized) celebrated communion every Sunday but it was not sacramental in any sense. The Pentecostal group was very evangelistic (always doing "outreach") and there was no respect given to the beliefs of other Christians...Catholicism, in particular, was considered to be diabolical. After my family moved to another city, I kind of stopped going to church for a long time, though I still believed.
After we moved again, I spent a short time going to Mass and falling in love with it (yes, the Novus Ordo, even!). At the time, I couldn't deal with the really Catholic doctrines, like Mary and such, but I fell in love with the liturgy as well as the sacraments. I became a Lutheran because they had the closest liturgy to Catholic, a form of sacramental theology and had other doctrines I could live with (Calvinistic Double-Predestination and Limited Atonement have always bothered me).
Only when I saw Catholics who spoke of Jesus the same way I did...as though they knew Him in a real way did I consider investigating the Church and seeing whether or not I could take that step towards the Catholic Church.
I'm so glad I did.
I have no problem having friends who are Protestant.
Living and working where I do, I associate with people who are Sikh, Orthodox Jewish, Muslim, Russian Orthodox, Catholic, Non-denominational, etc.
[qote]However, you will find some Catholics (especially on the internet) who have not yet understood or accept that Protestants are also a part of the church or even Christian.[/quote]Ah, yes...the "Extra Ecclesia Nula Salus" (Outside the Church there is no salvation) crowd. Such a joy when encountered.