As to the side topic, as somebody who went to a Catholic school: Mary was the only person to be born without the taint of original sin. Hence she is more pure then regular people, and closer to God. Thus, like Civ2 said, she is asked to pray to God for sinners. She is not worshipped herself.
Out of curiosity, where did this idea that Catholics worship Mary come from? I've only ever heard it when I was reading Whitethorn (a good book by Bryce Courtney), but the characters that held that view were basically rednecks who didn't understand much of anything. Thus I'm surprised to find that it's actually more commonly held.
I also went to a Catholic school and its just they never clarified the difference.
We were suppose to pray in the direction of the Cross wherever it was in the classroom.
It just so happened that there were many more effigies to Mary thus we were told to pray to her.
I do understand that she is "more pure than others" but we were taught to model ourselves after her because of her sinlessness and ask her for guidance.
My argument is if you believe in God and everything why would you pray at all to anyone/thing else?
What makes a Catholics Christian is their belief in Jesus Christ's divinity.
Not on the holiness of his mother. The Bible clearly states that Jesus is the light of the world
and we as people cannot enter the kingdom of heaven execpt through him a.k.a God.
Not Mary, try bring that up in Religion class and still getting an 'A'