i actually would say to trixie that that is entirely the point that god is our intercessor with god. the idea is that HE made the effort to reach us, not the other way round. we don't need an intercessor so much as we needed someone to reach us because we weren't/aren't listening.
i have known catholics that i did not believe worshipped mary, but i have also paid attention enough to know that it is very easy to believe things differently from one's establishment *raises hand*. i am not catholic and i do not propose to proclaim that all catholics are heretics etc. but the definition of idolotry as many protestants see it is that you place something at an equal or near-equal to god... ie you raise it above the level of man. there was nothing special about mary. and many protestants see that praying to her (or saints or angels) is distracting. many catholics, i imagine, do not. but they probably would never say anything about it because it is sometimes better to seek peace than to cause strife seeking conformity to a subjective truth.
is mary an idol and do at least some catholics worship her incorrectly? probably. i know polish catholics view mary VERY highly and this stems from their previous cultural pagan worship of the feminine. i think many cultures share that and mary is being abused as a kind of fertility goddess (if the shoe fits, hunt eggs on easter). but the idea that much of judeo-christianity stems from paganism is not foreign. passover resembles and probably comes from a farmer's sacrificial rite to ensure crop return in the future, easter is a fertility fest (they didn't even change the name) ensuring the bringing of life (new life/resurection/spring, come on this is child's play), and christmas has always been a festival of light to ensure the return of spring (jesus is the light of the world), rosh hashanna seems like a fall festival celebrating and bringing a sacrifice by fire in thanksgiving for the harvest, yom kippur seems like a preparation for winter and an acknowledgement of the hard times to come as well as allowing winter to give you a clear slate for the next year by ridding yourself of all the bad stuff you did last year and allowing for rebirth to come in the spring.