Alright, here's something that made absolutely no sense to me. Every time, I heard popes lecture a speech, especially John Paul II, they always mentioned Mary, the mother of Jesus. Now, I can understand this if you're describing the early life of Jesus as a child or her maternal/genetical relationship to Him and His Jewish heritage; however, the way they talked about her, it's as though she was the intercessor and mediator for salvation rather than Christ! Therefore, my question for this discussion is: Why do certain types of Christians pray to Mary instead of Jesus? I ask this, because I could not find a single scripture in the bible that indicated that she provided salvation to humanity or that she died on the cross for our sins? In fact, I cannot figure out why people pray to saints rather than Jesus, except the fact that saints were used by some denominations as substitutes for pagan gods?