i noticed that in the body explaining proteins and their purpose the site said that without the proteins acting as a catalyst the process wouldn't take place-catalyst means exactly that speed up, without the protein the process and end result would be the same given x amount of time.
Catalysts don't "speed up" reactions exactly, they reduce the energy required for a reaction. In the body some reactions would never happen due to the required energy never being present.
what reactions are you speaking of? if this is true, the site wan't talking about specific reactions, they were generalising and surely the predominant amount of reactions if not all this is not the case.