praying to mary
Being brought up a rebel (whoops I mean catholic), we pretty much did what the priests told us to do. Mix that with a whole bunch of tradition of men and you'll probably end up praying to someone besides the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. Some prayed to Mary because they didn't know any better, some out of desperation, and some because they didn't have anything else to believe in. Most of us never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can hear about Jesus for years but until He actually comes into your heart (by heart I mean the born again part of a person, their spirit), you pretty much do what your told by people you trusted. We weren't born again, we were told to be baptised as an infant in the catholic church means your born again. Sad to say most of the catholics I have met still believe this heresy. What ever or who ever the spirits that control the catholic church are, they don't give their members a chance to hear the gospel. The funny thing is the clergy are the ones who end up studying the bible, they get saved but their church attendees for the most part are ignorant of what the bible says about salvation.