Praying to dead saints for intercession, or to/for any dead person is an abomination to the Lord:
"When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you." (Deuteronomy 18:9)
The Church has never disagreed with you on this.
It is truly a shame that non-Catholics deny themselves the abundance that our Lord promised and bind themselves to the false tradition of man that Heaven is a place of death.
They're not dead.