non-catholics really trying to preach about the virgin mary when the first thing your taught in catholicism is to not worship other idols lmao, it’s literally in the ten commandments.

we pray to mary, yes. but we also pray to over 10,000 other saints and figures - but none of them come before god, because he is the only figure that catholics worship, we hold that there is one god, but 3 divine persons (the father, the son (jesus) and the Holy Spirit (all god)

<< clarification, i was raised in ireland, a country with extreme catholic roots, and whilst i am not practising or take my faith seriously so room for error, but I was raised in a roman catholic family, and attended roman catholic education & took religion until a-level >>

literally the worship of another idol, in this case the statue of the virgin mary, in place of god is called idolatry. some popes have encouraged the worship of mary, whilst others have condemned it ~ it is a tricky topic, but if you are not roman catholic, you don’t really

have a say in whether it is passable or not and so you should always go w face value w/ that the ten commandments say & the bible as they are the foundation of our faith. catholic’s have venetration (great respect) for the virgin mary, which makes it different from statues of

for example, saint andrew, but we do not * worship * her as she is not god.

i can’t speak for any of the other religious figures or cultures that have spun into this joke, but i hope this helps from a roman catholic perspective

& again, i am not practising, my family are not strict, so there are things i may have gotten wrong, or portrayed wrongly, in this case please feel free to add anything (if you are roman catholic)

my friend has pointed out that the saints & mary are basically used as middlemen ~ we pray to them to interact with god on our behalf, but they do not act by themselves