It's not as scary as people think . . . . the pope hardly ever makes a pronouncement ex cathedra, and when he does, he has the backing of the Cardinals. I have found it quite reassuring to have adult leadership with a backbone. One of the reasons the Episcopal church has found itself in such difficulties is that there is no final authority to stand up and say, "No!" to anything.
And Marian philosophy at its core is theologically sound -- individual Catholics sometimes engage in sentimental and excessive devotions which are off-putting to Protestants, but remember, no Catholic is required to perform optional pious exercises. And, besides, the Blessed Virgin herself always points the way to her Son. Always. So she will help those folks who are mistaking devotion for worship in the right direction.
Right....I have no problem with the way the RCs set up the Church, which I consider the Mother Church of Christ and Christianity, up until about the 11th Century. It is hardly surprising, IMHO, that most of the Saints of the Church (which, incidentally we in the AC concur) who were popes dominate the early church beginnings. But popes such as Urban II, Gregory IX, Sixtus IV, Alexander VI, Leo X, and Julius III, Pius XII (Hitler's favorite) UGH! And, while I loved JPII and everything he stood far, I'm really not all that keen about his current successor to the Throne of St. Peter.
I could agree on the possibility of the assumption of Mary bodily into heaven (as it also occurred in the Old Testament to Elijah) but I find it difficult to believe in her immaculate conception as with her son (if so, then wouldn't her mother, St. Anne, be just as Holy, and so on?).