I read what you posted and have no issues with that whatsoever. With a Catholic eye, I understand what the pope is talking about and realize the kind of prayer to which he is speaking. It's still not praying TO Mary. It's still asking for her intercessory prayers.
Intercessory Prayer - What is it?
Intercessory prayer is prayer for others. An intercessor is one who takes the place of another or pleads another's case. One study Bible defines intercession as "holy, believing, persevering prayer whereby someone pleads with God on behalf of another or others who desperately need God's intervention."
See? Not praying TO her.
Thank you for the compliment on my family. I have been blessed! :o)
This is not asking Mary to Intercede (Sample prayers). These prayers are relying on MARY to do something for the pray-er:
"O Lady and Mother of America! Strengthen the faith of our brothers and sisters"
"Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of Peace! Save the nations and peoples of this continent. Teach everyone, political leaders and citizens, to live in true freedom and to act according to the requirements of justice and respect for human rights, so that peace may thus be established once and for all."
Immaculate Heart of Mary,
help us to conquer the menace of evil,
which so easily takes root
in the hearts of the people of today,
and whose immeasurable effects already
weigh down upon our modern world
and seem to block the paths toward the future.
From famine and war, deliver us.
From nuclear war, from incalculable self destruction,
from every kind of war, deliver us.
From sins against human life from its very beginning,
deliver us.
From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity
of the children of God, deliver us.
From readiness to trample on the commandments
of God, deliver us.
From the loss of awareness of good and evil,
deliver us.
From sins against the Holy Spirit,
deliver us.
Accept, O Mother of Christ,
this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual
human beings, laden with the sufferings
of whole societies.
Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit conquer all
sin:
individual sin and the "sin of the world,"
sin in all its manifestations.
Let there be revealed once more in the history of the
world the infinite saving power of the redemption:
the power of the merciful love.
May it put a stop to evil.
May it transform consciences.
May your Immaculate Heart
reveal for all the light of hope.
Amen.