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Wow, it seems you really have a chip on your shoulder when it comes to Catholicism! If someone is interested in whether the Catholic Church puts Mary on a par with Jesus, a good place to start would be to attend mass. There one would find that in the prayers of the mass the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are addressed or mentioned probably several hundred times more often than is Mary. In fact, in the present version of the mass, Mary is only mentioned once or twice: (1) in the Creed it says that Jesus was “born of the Virgin Mary”, and (2) in the prayer called the “confiteor” she is named in a list of those we ask to pray for us that includes all those present at the mass. In the old pre-Vatican II version of the mass, Mary was probably mentioned a few more times, but only a few. The overwhelmingly dominant focus of attention of the mass is God. This is true also of the other rites and ceremonies of the Church. It is absurd to think that Catholics would think anyone baptized in the name of Mary.
Yes, the Church honors Mary. And this is reflected in popular devotions such as the Rosary, in religious art, in a number of feast days in her honor, and so on.
However, Mary figures far more in debates between Protestants and Catholics than she figures in the actual worship and prayer life of the Church. Because in these debates so much is said about Mary, it is easy to get the impression that Catholics spend all their time thinking about Mary. It is probably not much of an exaggeration to say that I hear a more about Mary from Protestants complaining about her than I hear from Catholics in their ordinary religious devotions.
Protestants are so unused to honoring Mary or hearing about Mary in their own religious devotions and practices that any mention of her seems to rivet their attention as something very jarring and shocking. But to Catholics, hearing the name of Mary is no more shocking than hearing the names of St. Peter or St. Paul, or John the Baptist, or Moses, or Abraham, or the angels. All these figures are unique and important parts of the story of how we were saved. A Catholic no more thinks of worshipping Mary as God than he thinks of worshipping Peter, Paul, or John the Baptist as God. We have feast days for Mary, but we have feasts for Peter, Paul, and many others. We also address prayers to them on occasion -— asking for THEIR prayers.
There are some people who make it their business in life to take offense. Some “civil rights spokesmen” smell secret racism everywhere. Even the most inoffensive remark is analyzed for traces of it. The same with some Jewish organizations, who see anti-Semitism around every corner. The hypersensitivity of some Protestants, which leads them to see mariolatry, statue worship, etc. lurking everywhere, strikes me as the same kind of maniacal fixation.
Is there not room in the human heart for more than one kind of love? I love my five children. I’d run out in front of a truck to save any one of them. I think about them a lot. I ask THEM to pray for me. I have pictures of them in my office. Does that mean I worship them? I love my wife.
I love my country. Does loving God AS GOD, mean we cannot love any creature AT ALL? God is a jealous God in that he will not tolerate any WORSHIP of any lesser being. But does he will that no love AT ALL be directed toward anyone but Himself? Quite the contrary. He says that in loving our neighbor we also love Him. The more we love God, the MORE we will love our fellow man, and that would include most especially God’s holy ones.