You wrote:
“That’s odd, as I see many instances of Catholics asking Mary to intercede for things. That is worship in most people’s books.”
Only if they are ignorant and stupid. We ask Mary to pray for us TO GOD. So, even when we ask Mary for prayers we are actually honoring ONLY God as God.
“Mary was an ordinary woman asked to do extraordinary things.”
Exactly! And she still does those things now. All of them through the power of God.
“The only truth is Christ. Not gaudy robed popes. Not layers of priest and bureaucrats created to put a division between man and Christ.”
Okay, let’s use your own logic: If only Christ is truth then scripture is untrue, right? If only Christ is truth, then the Father is not truth, right? No, both scripture and the Father are truth. They share in the same truth that is Christ. And Christ can share Himself in that way with His Church (which scripture - and you claim to believe in scripture - says [the Church] is the bulwark and pillar of the truth; 1 Tim 3). These things are simple, but you don’t seem to understand them at all. Read Ephesians 3:10. Notice how the Church teaches even the angels about the wisdom of God? How could the Church do that if it were not true?
“This all so simple when one reads and seeks to understand Scripture.”
Clearly I understand the scriptures much better than you do.
“No one who reads Scripture can think God had any intention of creating a Pharisee type replacement for what He came to abolish.”
And I don’t believe God created Protestantism. I do believe He founded His Church and that Church is the Catholic Church.
No, she died 2,000 years ago. I would think if you truly believe Scripture you would ask God directly for things. Why do you need an intercessor. Is God not enough? Is not Jesus enough?
Check out Hebrews 3:1 “ Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.”
And Hebrews 4: “14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,[e] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Pretty clear from those passages that we do not need any intercessors to put our needs before Jesus.
I don't understand why Catholics think this isn't good enough for them, and they want to add human created layers between us and the Son of God?