Are Catholics Christian?

Well, that depends on whether or not they have repented of their sins and put their faith and trust in Jesus, and receive him as their Lord and Savior. First we have to know what they believe about Heaven and how to get there. Most Catholics believe that if their "good" outweigh there bad then they hope to go to heaven. What does the Bible say? First of all Romans chapter 3 talks about what is good. "there is none righteous, no not one", "there is none that doeth good, no, not one." , these passages speak clearly on the matter of good. Isaiah 64:6 says "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags", To God our righteousness does not measure up, to his standard. What is God's standard? In Genesis we read the story of Moses and mt. Sinai, when he was on this mountain God gave him the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are Gods standard for "goodness". We have to measure ourselves up to that standard. If you would like to see how you would measure up, click here.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.". Our Salvation has to be through Jesus, God cannot be glorified through our own goodness. If our works can save us then Jesus' death on the cross was all for not.
What about Purgatory? First of all the doctrine of purgatory is not a scriptural doctrine. The Catholic church finds the doctrine of purgatory in the apocriphal books. These books are historical in nature, and that is why all other biblical scholars exclude them in the canons of scripture. Only the Catholic church uses the apocripha. Nowhere in scripture are we commanded to pray our dead love ones into heaven.
Basically, if a Catholic person were to beleive in Salvation by grace through faith, and the other essential doctrines then they could be christian, but the Catholic religion does not teach this. Scripture is the key. Man cannot be trusted, it all has to come back to what the Bible says.

Understand, this is not an easy topic for me, since most of the people we have contact with are Catholic, and by simply writing this I stand to offend someone. That is not my goal. I want to win them to Christ, and my prayer is that they see the truth. If you can get a Catholic to read the Bible, then you have made a giant leap in winning them.