did you READ what the council of Trent wrote? It’s excerpted above. We are SAVED by Christ’s righteousness. We do not merit grace but receive it as a gift. That is Church teaching. God gives us the grace to have faith. We respond to Gods grace by faith. Our faith, if it is genuine, is shown through works.
If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof: let him be anathema.
If any one saith, that the good works of one that is justified...does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life if so be, however, that he depart in grace,and also an increase of glory: let him be anathema. The comments of John Gerstner are very pertinent here:
Some Romanists will say that they too teach justification by graceby Christs righteousness, in fact. But the righteousness of Christ which they claim justifies is not Christs own personal righteousness reckoned or credited or given or imputed to believers. Romanists refer to the righteousness which Christ works into the life of the believer or infuses into him in his own living and behavior. It is not Christs personal righteousness but the believers personal righteousness, which he performs by the grace of God. It is Christs righteousness versus the believers own righteousness.
It is Christs achievement versus the Christians achievement. It is an imputed righteousness not an infused righteousness. It is a gift of God versus an accomplishment of man. These two righteousnesses are as different as righteousnesses could conceivable be. It does come down to the way it has been popularly stated for the last four and a half centuries: Protestantisms salvation by faith versus Romes salvation by works...The Protestant trusts Christ to save him and the Catholic trusts Christ to help him save himself. It is faith versus works.