Heck, even the current pope recognizes us mere protestants as Christians, just "imperfect" members of the body of Christ.
Dear MeanWestTexan,
"Heck, even the current pope recognizes us mere protestants as Christians, just 'imperfect' members of the body of Christ."
It's a bit trickier than that. However, one may meditate on this: There is only one baptism. Baptism is a sacrament of the Church. The CATHOLIC Church. If one is validly baptized, for at least some very short period of time, one is, in some sense, a Catholic. One may quickly move to other categories, including schismatic, heretic, and apostate, but one still has the mark of Catholic baptism on one's soul.
That is why we "receive" non-Catholics into the Church, but baptize non-Christians into the Church.
sitetest