What makes us Catholic? Does dissent from Church social teaching put one outside the faith?
The short answer
Strictly, a Catholic is someone baptized in the Catholic Church or received into it after a valid non-Catholic baptism. Full incorporation means accepting the whole Church and being joined by faith, sacraments, government and communion; and even one incorporated is not saved if he does not persevere in charity.
Strictly speaking, a Catholic is a person baptized in the Catholic Church, or received into it after a valid non-Catholic baptism.
The Catechism explains that those are fully incorporated into the Church who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of salvation given to the Church and her whole organization, and are joined in her visible structure, ruled by Christ through the pope and bishops, by the bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments, Church government and communion. Yet one who is incorporated but does not persevere in charity is not saved: he remains in the Church "in body" but not "in heart" (CCC 837).