Day 74 ~ I could never be a Catholic

Beginning with chapter 10 of Luke, several parables are told that have not yet been shared in Matthew or Mark. I've seen a couple of charts with the parables laid out, and they don't include the gospel of John in the chart. Are their no parables in John? Guess we'll find out in a few days. Seems to me that when you read the gospels in a parallel Bible, John is always included. This chart - http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/parables/ - lists the parables with John, and it lists three parables in John, none of which are recounted in Matthew, Mark or Luke. At least 20 parables are told in John that do not appear in any of the other three gospels. All of them but one (in 7:41-43) appear in chapter 10 or later of Luke. Matthew has 15 that are not included in any of the other gospels. Mark only contains two unique parables.

• Chapter 10:1-12 - 70 are sent out to heal and announce the coming of the Kingdom of God has come. I don't know if this included the 12 apostles - I suspect they stayed with Christ - the 70 weren't gone long, for in verse 17 they returned to profess their joyful accomplishments.
• Chapter 10:38-42 - Mary and Martha - I remember reading a book that discussed the characteristics of a Mary or Martha church. I know I lean more toward being a Martha, but need to heed the warning about being busy and not being fed spiritually.

Let's talk about Catholicism. Most of my knowlege is from a historical study, showing all the corruptness and political side of it, and I'm not a big fan of Catholicism.
In Luke 11:27-28 - Jesus' response to praise of His mother - "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” This makes me wonder why the Catholic church so highly exalts Mary, the mother of Jesus. I'm assuming that the Catholic religion bases their praying to Mary for intercession based on Mary's song from Luke 1. Why do they need an otherworldly intercessor to Jesus to God? When Jesus is the ultimate interecessor, why do we need to get his attention through his mother? Especially when Jesus downplays the praise of His mother in these two verses.

I found the phrase "Mary co-redemptrix" doing websearches (with http://www.goodsearch.com/ with Cicero Christian Church as the charity, of course!). That phrase really scares me. Just like the Pharisees added layers of details to the law of Moses, the Popes of the Catholic church have applied layers of attributes to Mary over the years, such as Pope Boneventure in the twelveth century "[Mary is called] the gate of heaven, because no one can enter that blessed kingdom without passing through her." Okay, how is that Biblical? or Pope Pius XII, in his Munificentissimus Deus (1950-NOV-1), defined that Mary, "after the completion of her earthly life was assumed body and soul into the glory of Heaven." That is, she was "taken up body and soul into heaven," at the time of her death. She is there "exalted as Queen of the Universe." This, to me, is dangerous. I guess it is safe to say that I will never be a Catholic, and I will have a very difficult time if my daughter were to consider dating a "good Catholic boy". Yes, I said it, Popes of the Catholic church can be likened to Pharisees. Apparently, many people like to be told what to do by the Pope, as over 1/6th of the population of the world profess to be Catholic.

• 12:8 - I think this is why we profess our belief in Christ in front of witnesses - “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God."
• 13:1 - "Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices" - wonder what this was. It appeared some had been martyrs at the hand of Pilate. I always thought of Pilate as a decent guy in a bad situation when he had to give Christ over to the Jewish authorities. But maybe Pilate wasn't that nice a guy.
• 14:2 - what is dropsy? Wikipedia says it is "edema" which is extra fluid in an organ causing inflamation.
• 14:7-11 - to me this is a good example of being humble / the first shall be last.
• 15:25-30 - the prodigal son. Having being raised in the church and educated in a religious college, I too would likely respond as the obedient son who didn't welcome back his prodigal brother.