Salvation

Nothing anyone does begins the process. The Church teaches that even the desire to turn toward God is itself prompted by grace.

Works matter as the shape love takes, not as payment. Matthew 25 is uncomfortable precisely because it refuses to separate belief from feeding people.

Catholics generally speak of confident hope rather than absolute certainty, because freedom continues to the end of a life. This is meant to keep the door open, not to keep you anxious.

If your religious background left you with scrupulosity (relentless fear about your standing with God) that is a recognised spiritual and often psychological difficulty. It responds to gentle spiritual direction and, frequently, to therapy. It is not a sign of holiness.

The Church teaches that Christ is the source of salvation, and also that those who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel, yet seek God and follow their conscience, may be saved.

Catholics are not permitted to declare any individual damned. The Church names those it believes are in heaven; it names no one in hell.

Catholic teaching holds that justification comes through grace received in faith, and that this grace bears fruit in works of love; it does not teach that people earn salvation through their own effort apart from grace.

This is close to, though phrased differently from, many Protestant accounts. The Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation formally agreed on the core of this teaching in the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. Real differences remain in Christian traditions, but the old caricature that Catholics believe in earning heaven by works is not an accurate account of Catholic teaching.