OK, I'll deny it all I want, because it isn't true. I don't worship Mary; no Catholic I know worships Mary; the Church no where teaches Catholics to worship Mary and, in fact, is clear in it's teachings that we are to worship God alone. The Catechism of the Catholic Church in it's section on the 1st Commandment (CCC 2085) quotes St. Justin Martyr where he says, "There will never be another God, Trypho, and there has been no other since the world began . . . than he who made and ordered the universe. We do not think that our God is different from yours. He is the same who brought your fathers out of Egypt by his powerful hand and his outstretched arm. We do not place our hope in some other god, for there is none." (St. Justin, Dial. cum Tryphone Judaeo 11,1:PG 6,497)
I was raised a Catholic.
Being an ex-Catholic does not qualify anyone as an authority on Church teaching. Ex-Catholics are such because they misunderstood the Faith, not because they knew the Faith. If you see a Catholic who you presume is worshiping Mary, either you are wrong and are misreading their heart, or (possibly) you are right and you are looking at a Catholic who is ignorant of Church teaching.
Catholics will say whatever it takes to get Christians to not question their unbiblical practices. I used to do the same thing.
If you were uneducated in your Catholic Faith to the point you had to resort to deception and denial to defend it, that says more about you than it does about Catholic teaching and practice.
“OK, I’ll deny it all I want, because it isn’t true. I don’t worship Mary”
Every time you claim that Mary is sinless, or the all-holy ever virgin, who can hear your repetitious prayers and praises AND answer them, you essentially make Mary to be another God whom you worship. We never claimed that Catholics are themselves aware of it. We claim that your practices give so much devotion to a flawed human being, and ascribe to her so much power, that in effect you both worship and serve her, a creation, instead of the creator who demands ALL your worship.
Exo 34:13-14 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: (14) For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
The most righteous thing a Catholic can do is to cut down the altars and the groves an the sacred images of all their Saints, and replace them with a place dedicated to prayer to God alone. This is the biblical example, and the only example worth imitating.
“We do not place our hope in some other god, for there is none.” (St. Justin, Dial. cum Tryphone Judaeo 11,1:PG 6,497)”
“Mary is the intermediary through whom is distributed unto us this immense treasure of mercies gathered by God, for mercy and truth were created by Jesus Christ. Thus as no man goeth to the Father but by the Son, so no man goeth to Christ but by His Mother.” (Vatican Website: Encyclical of Pope Leo 13th on the Rosary, Octobri Mense, Pope Leo 13th, 1903-1914)
This is literally taking THIS scripture:
Joh_14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
And inserting Mary’s name right into it!
CCC 966, “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.”
The Queen over all things, who delivers the soul from death with the power of her prayers, and you say you do not hope on Mary? But, oh, you say, she’s not GOD, she’s just the all-holy ever virgin who is Queen over all things!
Rom 3:10-12 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (11) There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (12) They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Mar_10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
The “ALL-HOLY EVER VIRGIN” compared to these scriptures falls to pieces, don’t you think?