This has been bugging me...........

I was in my Mom's group at church last Tuesday. A visiting Mom asked how to become a Christian, she had been Catholic all her life, was there a book she could read . I could not keep my mouth shut.......as usual. LOL!
I blurted out...........'Catholics are Christians'! Do you believe in Christ???? Everyone looked at me and said nothing. I was so annoyed!
So, to anwser the question, read below.

Are Catholics Christian?
I have an Evangelical friend who asked me:
"what is the difference between Catholics and Christians?"
I had to scratch my head for a few moments because it never occurred to me that some people didn't think Catholics are Christian. I explained to him that that is kind of like saying "what is the difference between Americans and U.S. citizens?" The name Christian predates the Evangelical community by over a millennium, as do the words Bible, and Trinity.
I think it is good that Evangelicals and Catholics have lively and animated discussions on the interpretation of Scripture. That's the spice of life. Evangelicals do that with each other all the time. That's why there are so many different denominations. However, I have a big problem with any organization that says "Catholics are not Christians," because they are ignoring the history of Christianity. Some who advance this theory, spend a lot of effort pulling Vatican statements out of context. By saying we are not Christian they think they can get around Jesus' call to Christian unity (Jn 13:34). I got an email that said:
"I am wondering if you are truly Christian then why do you call yourselves Catholic? Believers were called Christian in Acts 11 & no other denomination or religion."
I could ask the same question, "why do Baptists, Pentecostals, United, Methodist, or even nondenominational communities use those words and not simply say Christian?" The word Catholic was used before the end of the first century to distinguish the Church.
Did you all know that the Catholic church was the very first church?????
I could go on and on about Catholicism, its' a hot topic for me. My Mom's side of the family is Catholic but I was not brought up in the church. I was brought up going to Non denominational churches. I became a Catholic in 1997, after going through a class and learning why Catholics do what they do. I get so angry when other judge the C. faith when they don't know anything about it. I decided to leave the C. church and go back to a non denominational chruch 2 yrs. ago.
I was personally not growing in Christ and either were my kids, it was a personal choice. I agree with many ways of the C. church but there are also things that I don't agree with. I'm happy and glad that I made the change. I just want people to understand that Catholics are indeed Christians and are not weird or bad.
OK, jumping off my soap box now. LOL