Roman Catholics, Protestants, And Salvation

Salvation is the central issue and of the utmost importance, our eternity depends on it.  Do Catholics and Protestants differ on the issue of salvation?  If there are differences are they major or minor?  

At issue is justification or how is a person considered righteous before God.  Roman Catholics see justification as an ongoing process and not a one time thing.  It starts with infant baptism and continues with the Catholic sacraments.  Catholic doctrine teaches that one needs faith plus good deeds to earn salvation.  In the Catholic system it is God and man working together.  A person can have no assurance of salvation and one could lose his salvation.  Catholics also hold to the doctrine of purgatory which is a temporary punishment for purification.  The idea of purgatory comes from the book of 2 Maccabees found in the Apocrypha.  

On the other hand Protestants believe a person is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone.  Justification is a one time event where the sinner is declared righteous.  Christ takes our sins on himself and we receive his righteousness.  Christ paid for all of our sins once and for all.   We can add nothing to our salvation it is totally by God's grace.  We are justified by faith alone and not by our own works.  Salvation is the work of God alone and to him alone belongs the glory.  Believers can have assurance of their salvation and cannot lose it.  Purgatory is not Biblical and is not even needed because Christ has taken care of our sins and provided us with his perfect righteousness.  

Roman Catholics and Protestants really have two different gospels.  In Catholicism it is the work of God and man together.  In Protestantism it is the work of God alone.  At the Council of Trent in 1546 the Roman Catholic Church declared that if anyone says he is justified by faith alone let him be anathema (condemned).  The Roman Catholic Church has condemned the Biblical gospel.  A person is justified by God's grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.