The canons and decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) remain authoritative in the Catholic Church. As the Catholic Encyclopedia indicates, the Council of Trent’s “main object was the definitive determination of the doctrines of the Church in answer to the heresies of the Protestants.”

We get a taste of this Catholic teaching under the heading of Justification. “If any one saith, that the good works of one that is justified are in such manner the gifts of God, as that they are not also the good merits of him that is justified…let him be anathema” (Session 6, Canon 32). In other words, good works are meritorious. A person is said to obtain right standing before God by grace through faith plus works. This is part of the divide between Catholicism and Protestantism.

The Protestant position is simple: Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 supports this view and refutes the other. “For by grace you have been saved through ...