Why do Catholics praise Mary?

Roman Catholic AnswerFor many reasons, all of which have to do with the praise that God gives her as the most perfect work of His creation. She is the only person (save Jesus Christ) who perfectly fulfilled the plan that God had in mind for her when He created her. That plan included bearing and raising the Savior of all mankind, so it is through her cooperation with God that enabled God to save us. God did not have to do it this way, we don't know why God does things the way He does. But it really isn't our right to question Him.

from Radio Replies, by Fathers Rumble and Carty, 1942, vol 2

670 To my Protestant mind your worship of Mary is little short of idolatry.

That can only be because you have no understood Catholic doctrine on the subject. The Creator alone is God. Mary is as much a creature as any other human being. But whilst she is as much a creature as we are, we have not been honored by God nearly as much as she.

671. Does not the elevation of Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, to a rank quasi-divine, find an illuminating analogue in the ancient Egyptian cult which gave Isis the divine rank of Mother of Heaven?

Firstly, Mary has not been elevated by the Catholic Church to a rank of quasi-divine, or even remotely divine. In Catholic theology she falls as far short of divinity as I do, and that's infinitely. Secondly, there is no true analogue between the historical Mother of Christ and the purely mythological Isis, and still less can any illiminatino be derived from a comparison of the two.

672. Cathlicism says Mary is omnipotent in power and infinite in mercy.

It does not say that Mary is omnipotent in power and infinite in mercy. It says that her prayer and intercession have a special efficacy in winning for usthe protection of the Omnipotent power of God and His infinite mercy.