The Pope doesn’t pray “to” Mary; he simple asks her to pray for him.
Ever ask anyone to pray for you? Same thing.
Bible believers don’t ask the dead or those physically absent for anything because we are not clairvoyant and have no interest in becoming a medium to the spirit world. Only God has the ability to hear the prayers of the billions of people who petition Him. So it is a ridiculous claim that you are just asking for someone else to pray. You have only images... deaf, mute, blind images to talk to. They don’t hear you. She is not sitting in the seat beside you at church. You cannot call her on her cell phone. If she was alive, she could not accommodate millions of Catholics trying to follow these foolish doctrines either.
That statement is refuted by many statements by the Catholic Church and readily available online. Anyone can quickly see that they do indeed pray to Mary and the saints asking them specifically to do something other than pass on prayers. The statement “we don’t pray to” gets pretty lame.
How does the pope's "ask" get delivered to Mary (presuming that Mary is NOT dead and CAN pray for someone)?
Is that NOT considered to be a 'prayer'?