It's not about your righteousness
I was listening to the Sirius XM Catholic channel on my way into work this morning. It was their prayer hour and they were taking calls. One guy wanted to pray for a family member who "had walked away from the faith" and also their children who they had not baptized.
To Catholics, walking away from the faith means they are no longer saved. For example, David Armstrong, a blogger for the National Catholic Register, writes, "The notion of 'once saved, always saved' is false and presumptuous." Instead, he writes, "Catholics... believe in a strong notion of 'moral assurance' of salvation, meaning that if we examine ourselves and make sure we are free of all mortal sin, that we are in good graces with God and would be saved and go to heaven if we died at that moment.' In other words, Mr. Armstrong asserts that it's not only Christ who saves you, but you who saves you. It's the implication that if you are good enough and live morally enough, you will remain in good graces with God and you will be deemed worth enough to enter the gates of heaven when you die. It's a self-righteous attitude and people all over the world are filled with it. Therefore, we can pray for those we love to return to God if they have walked away... but if they have been saved... it is not up to them to retain their own salvation, but the Lord Himself preserves them to the end- knowing we cannot do it ourselves. What a great God we have! So please, stand firm in your faith, not because of your own righteousness... but because the One who is righteous holds you in His hands.
Second, Catholics believe baptism is necessary for salvation. You can put your faith in Jesus all day long... but until you're baptized you're not really saved. I hope you live close to water! They also baptize babies to "free" them from original sin. Is that what the Bible teaches? Nope! John writes this: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Therefore, salvation is not hereditary (you don't inherit it from your parents), nor is salvation of the flesh (of good works), nor is it by the will of man. Catholic baptism falls under the latter. If you ask a Catholic if they're saved, they'll likely to let you know they've been baptized. However, unless you've put all your hope in Jesus to reconcile your sin for you, the only thing baptism will do for you is get you wet. Baptism represents what Christ did. For example... HE died. We did not. HE went into the grave. We did not. HE rose from the dead. We did not. Therefore, everything that needed to be done HE did for us. And when we are baptized, it is a profession of those things and the reconciliation He made for us. It's a positional expression. We were dead in sin, but by faith- we are made alive in Christ.
If you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus (and not yourself), you have received reconciliation. You have been saved, once and forever. Come to Jesus today.