I think you may be wrong there because Catholics do not pray exclusively to Mary and all the patron saints. They also pray to Jesus. When Catholics pray to Mary, they are not praying to her as if she is God. When they pray to her, they ask her to help pray for them. In the same way you would ask a friend to pray for you or your cause. Praying to someone is not the same as worshipping someone. Catholics do not worship Mary.

There is a lot of media portraying what you allege, and the pictures of Catholics bowing before a statue certainly does not help that image. I would probably have come to the same conclusion as you without hearing what the Catholics themselves say.

And there are no 'reformed Catholic' churches. Just the Catholic Church.

Catholics think it is ok to ask a deceased normal human, including Mary, because they believe that they are still present in the afterlife. They acknowledge that they are still living, to be consistent with the belief in heaven and hell. To ignore them, especially those who are saints, is to disregard the grace which God gave them, and lessens the significance of life after death. That's all fine and good, but why still pray to these 'people' if you can go direct to God? Because they believe that by gathering God's saints, and in having conversations with them, and in celebrating their deeds and acts, they ultimately glorify God's will and plan. It is really a universal approach rather than simply thinking that 'oh these people can help me out with God'.

Mary is particularly special because Catholics think that, of all the human beings in the world, if they ever wanted to ask someone to join in their 'group prayer', and if God were ever to choose or favour one person to listen to, it would be Mary, the mother.

Catholic theology has always been fascinating, regardless of my own feelings for the religion. Non-Catholic theology is equally interesting too, as there are so many different beliefs!