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Jewish religious practices administered under the old system of priests mediating between the "lay" people and God, offering meritorious deeds or doing penitence for sins as the currency of gaining favor with God.

Why do you suppose God instituted such a system in the first place, if he was so violently opposed to it? Was he just setting a bad example?

There's two distinct messages in Galatians, which tend to be conflated:

The Christian dispensation isn't subservient to the Jewish one, but superior to it, so -- for example -- it's wrong to impose the Jewish ceremonial law on Gentiles
No legal observance of any kind can enable you to "earn your way to heaven"

Both messages are completely compatible with Catholicism, in fact they're dogmatically taught.

You guys consistently conflate "what must I do to be saved?" with "now that I'm saved, how shall I act?". Nobody who is unjustified can hope to receive any merit by "offering meritorious deeds or doing penitence for sins". Once someone is justified and enters the kingdom, those things are simply part of how citizens of the kingdom are expected to behave.

Why do you suppose God instituted such a system in the first place, if he was so violently opposed to it? Was he just setting a bad example?

I guess you must be a bit confused. The God instituted the first of several covenants to deal with sin. The various pre-Christian Covenants (Adamic, Noachic, Abramic, Mosaic, Davidic) were all instituted unilaterally by the Godhead Jehovah as progressively more detailed prerequisite conditions which sinning mankind must satisfy and overcome to communicate with Him. How could you possibly think that He was violently opposed to His Own Covenants?

You've missed the whole thing. The letter was written about the true gospel explaining it to people who had heard it previously, refused it, and accepted a false one in its stead.

You guys . . .

Pardon me? What "guys" are you talking about?

Nobody who is unjustified can hope to receive any merit by "offering meritorious deeds or doing penitence for sins".

Is that you?

Once someone is justified and enters the kingdom, those things are simply part of how citizens of the kingdom are expected to behave.

So, when was it that you experienced the free irreversible gift of salvation/justification? Which kingdom are you a citizen of, the Kingdom of The Son? or only the kingdom of heaven?