John Paul II suggests that the Catholic distinctiveness is its culture of piety. Do you think it’s an adequate bulwark against “sects”–read evangelical Protestants?
64. The Magisterium also highlights the importance of popular piety for the faith-life of the People of God, for the conservation of the faith itself and in inspiring new efforts at evangelization.
It is impossible to overlook “those devotions practiced in certain regions by the faithful with fervour and a moving purity of intention”(Catechesi tradendae 54); that authentic popular piety “in virtue of its essentially Catholic roots, is an antidote to the sects and a guarantee of fidelity to the message of salvation”( John Paul II, Discourse at the inauguration of the IV General Conference of the Latin-American Bishops, Santo Domingo, (12.10.1992), 12: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, XV/2, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Città del Vaticano 1994, p. 323.); that popular piety has been a providential means of preserving the faith in situations where Christians have been deprived of pastoral care; that in areas in which evangelization has been deficient, “the people for the most part express their faith primarily through popular piety”(Puebla 913); that popular piety is an important and indispensable “starting point in deepening the faith of the people and in bringing it to maturity”(Puebla, 960).
The full document, the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, is online at the Vatican site.
Catholic Sensibility 
For those who might have missed this: http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/catholic-church-track-become-shrinking-cult
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