Most Protestants do 'follow the sacraments.'
In that case those sacraments must be foreign to the Church. One of the unifying tenements of Protestantism is a belief in sola-fide. Thus it is apparent that by mentally accepting Christ as one's saviour, they would be saved. Though the Church cannot question the Lord's will and mercy, the stance has always been that one must be baptised in order to attain salvation.
Thus sacraments (i.e. taking communion, baptism) would not matter at all because you'd be saved anyway. Thus sacraments are not held very highly in most Protestant churches.
Some of that is true; most of it is not. Probably it isn't helpful to generalize about Protestants or characterize all by the beliefs of a minority.
Looking at those things in a Protestant perspective, they might seem to be quite heretical. I believe that Protestantism started as a rejection of Catholic theology. Thus transubstantiation and purgatory were completely rejected by the early Protestant. I apologise for making such a judgment but I have yet to meet a Protestant who agrees on Catholic theology, they themselves would be oxymorons.
In fact, we can't know who's in heaven or who is not--even when we're discussing the most outwardly admirable of people. And while most Protestants probably consider Catholicism to be unorthodox (if not by that way of putting it), few of them also think that means they are forever lost.
Of course, and might I stress that even the Pope cannot judge one's salvation. This is why the Catechism lists peoples of various faiths (such as Muslims and Jews) who might be saved by God's mercy. Ultimately I cannot judge whether
That isn't what your church teaches about it, however, so you seem to be doing exactly what you complain about non-denominational Protestants doing (below).
I said it in a Protestant perspective. Any Protestant would deem such things as a belief in purgatory as heretical. Thus what I am saying is that we shouldn't focus on the ''bad'' things about Catholicism, for the great majority of what the Church teaches is applicable to all Christians. Would this make it orthodox in your eyes, or is there such thing as a
flawless church?
All I can say about this is that, if you think such a condescending and half-hearted "change" should be met with applause by Protestants, you need to think again.
I think it would be good if you could see this sensetive issue in the eyes of the Church. After the Council was concluded, many
traditionalist Catholics broke away from the Church because they refused to recognise Protestants as Christian. The Church has come under increadible internal pressure because of God's will for us to better the relations between Catholics and Protestants.
It has not been easy at all for the Church. Fortunately many Protestant denominations, such as the Luthernas, have recognised this contribution from the Church and have tried to improve ties, especially over the nature of the Eucharist. However still now there are Protestants who refuse to recognise the steps the Church is slowly making to improve ties. If this cynical mentality is kept, Christian unity will be a thing of the past and we'll just keep on splitting...
Christ preached against sectarianism. The Church is aware of that and thus Pope Francis has stressed Catholics and Protestants to find common ground, especially in regards to issues in the modern world (such as abortion and contraception).
