There is a huge difference when you are obliged to accepted dogmas we find not just heretical but idolatrous to the extreme.
Amen sister! Catholics do not believe that faith in Christ alone is sufficient for salvation, as epostle claims. Catholics would only agree with that statement "after" they "infuse" works "into" faith and wrap faith and works up in a package and simply stamp "faith" on the package. Then they would say faith alone, but it's really faith AND WORKS. Roman Catholic smoke and mirrors.
When Catholics say that works are an integral part of justification, what they are really saying is that we are saved by works. Not works alone, but faith AND WORKS, in contradiction to Paul (Romans 4:2-6; Ephesians 2:8,9; Titus 3:5; 2 Timothy 1:9).
Paul and James do not contradict each other, yet epostle and the Roman Catholic church contradict the Scriptures. Once again, the harmony of Ephesians 2:8,9; Romans 4:2-6; Romans 5:1 and James 2:24 is seen in the differing ways that Paul and James use the term "justified." Paul, when he uses the term, refers to the
legal (judicial) act of God by which He "accounts the sinner as righteous." James, however is using the term to describe those who would
prove/show the genuineness of their faith by the works that they do - "shown to be righteous." Works bear out the justification that comes by faith. We show our faith by our works, but we do not establish it. I explained this more thoroughly in post #205.
The Council of Trent teaches that good works are not merely the fruit and signs of justification received by faith, as James teaches. The Roman Catholic church goes way beyond that. The Catholic faithful is taught to perform good works to
maintain and increase personal righteousness by which he is ultimately accounted to have fully satisfied the Law of God and allowed into heaven (Trent, session 6, chapter 16 and canon 24). Instead of demonstrating faith, his
religious works done with the intent to gain merit only goes to show that he does not really trust Christ for salvation.
The idea of trying to dissect good works from the moral aspect of the law and claiming they are two entirely different kinds of works and that we are saved by good works and just not by specific works of the law is bogus and is also a desperate attempt to get around the truth that we are saved through faith, NOT WORKS. More Roman Catholic smoke and mirrors.

The Greek word for "works" is the same Greek word "ergon" (Strong's #2041) in Romans 3:20,28; Ephesians 2:9 and James 2 which means "work, labor, action, deed."
How can they be entirely different types of works when in James 2:15-16, the example of a
"work" that James gives is: "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?" To give a brother or sister these things needed for the body would certainly be a
"good work" yet to neglect such a brother or sister and not give them the things needed for the body is to
break the second great commandment "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39) as found written in the law of Moses (Leviticus 19:18). In Matthew 22:37-40, we read: Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
Is giving a brother or sister things needed for the body (clothing and food) loving your neighbor as yourself? Is this not in the law? Leviticus 19:18 - ..but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. Jesus said that one of the two great commandments is love your neighbor as yourself and along with loving God with all our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:39) on these two commandments hang
ALL THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS.
Moreover Paul could not have limited the concept of "works" to the Torah. He presented the Patriarch Abraham as the primary witness to his doctrine. He wrote:
What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was
justified by works, he has
something to boast about, but
not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham
believed God, and
it (faith, not works of any kind) was accounted to him for righteousness." Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who
does not work but
believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his
faith (not faith and good works) is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness
apart from works. (Romans 4:1-6).
In this context "justified by works" could not refer exclusively to obedience of the Torah, for Abraham lived many centuries before Moses. It is therefore wrong to force Paul’s concept of "not justified by works" exclusively to limited works in the Law of Moses.
Clearly Paul applies the same principle to works in general. Abraham could not boast before God because he was justified by faith (accounted as righteous) and not by works (Romans 4:2-3); but Abraham was justified by works in a different sense -
"shown to be righteous" in James chapter 2. The same applies to us all.
Luther's doctrine was not known or taught prior to his time. It was entirely new: unbiblical, untraditional, and thereby heretical.
Roman Catholics love to use this sales pitch. Prior to Luther's time:
Basil: "This is the true and perfect glorying in God, when a man is not lifted up on account of his own righteousness, but has known himself to be wanting in true righteousness and to be
justified by faith alone in Christ."
Jerome: "When an ungodly man is converted, God justified him through
faith alone, not on account of good works which he possessed not."
Chrysostom: "Again, they said that he who adhered to
faith alone was cursed, but he shows that he who adhered to
faith alone, is blessed."
Augustine: "Grace is give to you, not wages paid to you...it is called grace because it is given gratuitously. By no precedent merits did you buy what you have received. The sinner therefore received this grace first, that his sins should be forgiven him...
good works follow after a justified person; they do not go before in order that he may be justified...good works, following after justification, show what a man has received."
Augustine: "Now, having duly considered and weighed all these circumstances and testimonies, we conclude that a man is
not justified by the precepts of a holy life, but by faith in Jesus Christ,--in a word, not by the law of works, but by the law of faith; not by the letter, but by the spirit; not by the merits of deeds, but by free grace."
Bernard of Clairvaux: "Shall not all our righteousness turn out to be mere unrighteousness and deficiency? What, then, shall it be concerning our sins, when not even our righteousness can answer for itself? Wherefore...let us flee, with all humility to Mercy which alone can save our souls...whoever hungers and thirsts after righteousness, let him believe in thee, who "justified the ungodly"; and thus, being
justified by faith alone, he shall have peace with God."
So epostle is not fooling anyone here "except the already fooled."
