You wrote:
“Are you suggesting the RCC is the “one true religion?””
It is not a suggestion. The Catholic Faith is the True Faith.
“Gawd, how many have perished over the centuries from THAT bloody vanity!”
No one dies because of a vanity, and truth is never a vanity.
Being a member of the “one true religion” has a way of invoking self-delusional rationalizations.
Ask the Jihadists.
The RCC is not the church of the true faith anymore. It has twisted itself into another religion. Faith in Christ alone is what saves you, not the Church. The Body of Christ is what it is, the Body of Christ and what we call church, but it can’t save you. Christ alone can save you and then you are (for lack of better word) incorporated into the Body of Christ. Remember the thief on the cross who was being crucified with Christ? He asked the Lord to remember him and Jesus said, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Tell me how the Church saved this thief, ok?