I don't know if any Christian believes "works" aren't important, but far too many believe "works" are required to be saved, and the reason so many "Christian" cults, like the Jehovah's Witnesses have sprung up. Paul saw that happening early in the Church ("Church" being the fellowship of believers, not some organized institution) and devoted much of his letters to that topic. The Treasury Dept. employees who investigate counterfeit money don't learn what counterfeit money looks like; they study REAL U.S. currency (they don't bother with coins for the most part), so much, that if they come across counterfeit bills, they INSTANTLY recognize them as forgeries. I believe my continuous reading through the Bible during the past 30 years has allowed me to recognize counterfeit Christian theology. I'm afraid that based on this, I consider the Catholic Church to be a cult. Yes, there are saved Christians who are Catholic, but Satan loves to hinder the salvation of humans, so if he can't stop all people from aligning with Jesus in the spiritual battle happening on Earth, he is more than happy to hinder their salvation through false theology and "church tradition". Finally, to address your responses, A) Yes, I understand the origin of infant baptism, and you pretty much answered my concern; it was started by the early church as a response to the plague, in the false belief that the infants would go to Heaven if they were baptized and died before the "age of accountability". But that believe relied on them thinking that baptism was required for the infants to be saved. All humans are saved if they die before reaching the age of accountability, but baptism does not save them later in life. B) There is no scriptural justification for praying to Mary! This is yet another Catholic doctrine with no scriptural support. To rely on the writings of Popes as equal to scripture is really, for lack of a better term, blasphemous. And C) you are partially correct on "works", but the doubts of salvation placed on the minds of Catholics in that regard is totally against the concept of "works".

Do you really think God wanted man to rely on such an organized church (Catholic Church) with all its rules and traditions, after Jesus came to the Earth to condemn the organized church of the time (Judaism)? (and by condemning, I'm referring to the multitude of rules and traditions that the Jewish leaders had established over the centuries, that made it virtually impossible for the people to reach full atonement)

I urge you to read through a Bible, independent of what the Catholic Church says, and let the Holy Spirit work in you to come to the truth. I wish you well. We will all know the ultimate truth regarding what God intended for man some day.