Pattie said:
My daughter is a Protestant going with a guy who was rasied as a Catholic. ... He has gone through Catechism and believes he is saved because of doing that. ...
Hi Pattie,
Catechesis does not give one any saving graces so we cannot be saved by simply attending it.
As Catholics, we are not taught that we are saved in the same sense that protestants understand it.
We believe salvation is a process which comes in 3 parts.
1. Initial Justification (aka baptism)
2. On-going [progressive] justification (aka santification)
3. final justification (aka final judgement)
We believe that at baptism we are saved, and throughout our life, if we sin, then by our cooperating with God, we come back to his friendship through sacramental reconsiliation.
For a Catholic to simply state that they are 'saved' is not accurately representing their faith.
As a Catholic, to the question "are you saved" our response should be similar to this:
"As the Bible says, I am already saved (Rom. 8:24, Eph. 2:58), but Im also
being saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12), and I have the hope that I
will be saved (Rom. 5:910, 1 Cor. 3:1215). Like the apostle Paul I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), with hopeful confidence in the promises of Christ (Rom. 5:2, 2 Tim. 2:1113)."
(the above quote is taken from the following article:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Assurance_of_Salvation.asp)