I'm a Christian, and I'm reasonably content to define my faith as Protestant. That being said I'm always moved by the charitable spirit among the Catholics. 

I read this piece this morning by a Protestant paying due respect to the many virtues of the Catholic church. This was written in the 1800's. 

"The Daughters of Mercy, founded in 1660 for the relief of the sick poor, along with other orders for instructing their children, must have been peculiarly suited to the softness and compassion of the sex. To this it is no doubt owing that, still in Catholic countries, ladies of the highest rank often visit the hospitals and houses of the poor. They wait on them with the most tender assiduity, performing duties that our Protestant ladies would be shocked even to think of, such as direct physical care such as:

• Washing the bodies of the sick and dying

• Changing soiled bedding and clothes

• Dressing wounds and ulcers

• Assisting with bodily functions (cleaning patients who were incontinent, vomiting, etc.)

• Preparing bodies of the dead for burial

These were gritty, unpleasant nursing tasks that went far beyond simply donating money or organizing charity.

This reflects a common 18th-century Protestant view: admiration for Catholic charitable institutions mixed with mild criticism of what they saw as excessive or socially inappropriate involvement by upper-class women.

No question, the charitable work of the Catholics has been a huge influence on my faith.