To the contrary.
"We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion, the merciful love of God and his saints is always [attentive] to our prayers" (CCC 962)
We don't pray to saints as if they are God. That would be ridiculous. We ask those already in Heaven to pray for us in the same way we ask our friends here on earth to pray for us. We are all one body in Christ.
this is not what the scriptures teaches nor is it what the early fathers believed.
What is the point of repeatedly posting conflicting quotes from early Church Fathers? Doctrinal development did not cease with their interpretations. By what standard does one decide that it should have? And if one relies on Sola Scriptura, why should their various writings be held as anything more than opinions?
What the "new" Catholic Church is teaching is the heresy Socinianism, denying the Atonement.
This is documented not only in the writings of the early fathers but also in the Nicene Creed and many other writings of the Church.
Are you aware that recitation of the Nicene Creed is included in the Mass?
The Mass:
The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: "The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different." "And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner. . . this sacrifice is truly propitiatory." (CCC 1367)
But then, all of a sudden it became clear as to what was REALLY being talked about. Hey, Christ didn't have to die for our sins but He just redeemed mankind from their sins. The rest is up to them.
This sums up the Catholic belief: "For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God". Was St. Paul proclaiming "works-based salvation theory" here?
Why do Catholics try to use that line when there is so much evidence against it? One needs simply to go to [Prayers to Saints] to see that Catholics routinely ask their saints to do things for them rather than just ask them to pray for them. Heres an example.
[THE PRAYER SAINT ANNE, BLESS MY FAMILY]
My family is the heart of my life.
It is my little Church.
Saint Anne, guard the members of my family
against all physical and spiritual danger.
That by any definition is praying to that saint. To claim that Catholics dont pray to saints is laughable given the evidence to the contrary.
But I suppose there is a certain irony in what they espouse and what they teach and believe. Eventually they'll modify the Mass to catch up with their doctrinal standards. This is, after all, what doctrinal development is all about, isn't it?