He pope: the position of the pope is never once mentioned in he New Testament. In that verse where they claim to have proof for it, the word rock that's used to describe Peter means a small rock like a pebble, the word rock that Jesus said he would build his church on is like a foundation, a big rock, not a pebble. And hen they take that, say that he's setting up the position of he pope, and let their minds run free with ideas as to what he does.
In the original aramaic, both are called cephas, which means rock, the greeks had multiple rocks, but it did not seem right to give Peter a feminine word, so they made it the more masculine sounding one instead.
Anyways, Catholicism does have some pretty skewed teachings, I think. Take, for example, their tradition of transubstantiation is believed to transform the wine and the bread into the literal blood and flesh of Jesus. This occurs at every mass. So, at every mass (which could even take place every day - think, that's a lot of Jesus' flesh) they perform transubstantiation. Jesus was raised into heaven after his resurrection, so wouldn't his body be in heaven, technically? I'm not sure how that all works.
Also, Catholics pray to Mary, or through Mary. They believe that Mary was without sin, since she gave birth to Jesus, who was without sin. Wouldn't she be in part the Messiah, though? She couldn't be a normal person and have not sinned. It's human nature. Else, if she was truly perfect, wouldn't her heritage would have also been perfect, without sin? The Bible doesn't really support the fact of Mary being sinless, nor give any evidence of it. (Either way, praying to Mary or the saints would contradict the commandment to not pray to anything other than God. Reference.)
When Jesus said "This is my Body" he performed the very first transubstantiation, when he said to do so in memory of Him, he meant for the apostles (and their successors) to do so in the exact same manner. Saying the Eucharist is not required is also unbiblical, as Jesus said "unless one eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he shall not have life within him."
for your second point, Jesus said His Church is of the living, not the dead (might of used a different term), and when we pray to the saints, we are asking them, in the same way that you would ask your neighbor, to pray for us to God, since they are already in Heaven they are closer to God.
As for Mary being sinless, that is Church Doctrine, and we can believe it because of 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 15, "the Church is the pillar and foundation (ground) of truth." Matthew chapter 18 verses 17 and 18, which shows the church in position of authority and gives it power to bind and loose things (like beliefs), Jesus also said in the petra vs petros verse that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church, indicating that the only Church that has existed from Peter up till now (THE CATHOLIC CHURCH) is the one true church.
Then there's also the part where they taxed the people so that they could get into heaven, or get their dead ancestors into heaven... I'm not so sure if they follow that through now, though.
Something that was caused because corrupt sinners got into positions of authority, and was abolished after the council of Trent (Catholic reformation or whatever it is called).
Sounds kind of relative, doesn't it? Plus, praying to the saints is sort of objective to God's nature - he is omniscient, and praying to the saints to get it heard better means that you probably think that God won't hear, and distances humanity from God. As well as being omniscient, he is omnipresent, so that doesn't really seem to fit.
The saints have already proven themselves worthy to be in Heaven, and who would you trust, the thief who recently repented after trying to steal everything you own, or the good man who always helped you in time of need.
Before you complain about the "idols" in Churches that we "worship", the statues are there to help us recall Jesus, Mary and every other person (Peter, Paul, St. Francis, St. Dominic, and others) that the Church has deemed fit to use as a model.
~~~Darth Caedus