“If you have ever asked any one to pray for you, or for something, you have done the same thing Catholics do when they pray to the Saints. Same thing.”
Not even close. Asking another living person to pray for you is far different then someone who has died.
I’m still trying to figure out why I would pray to a saint in heaven asking for intercession when I can just pray to Jesus with my prayer request. I just eliminate the middle man, as it were.
When I ask someone to pray for me, I’m assured that they can hear me ... I have no such assurance that anyone, besides the G_d, can even hear my prayer.
Romans 8:38
If someone is in Heaven they are not dead - they are alive.