I'm not well versed in Catholic doctrine, so I did what all girls in my situation would do. I turned to google. I found two exceptional responses to the questions everyone seems to ask about the Catholic faith, and I'll be using them as a template. The first can be found here and the second can be found here. I've cleaned up the grammar where necessary, but many of these answers are spot on. Couldn't have said it better myself. Quotation marks are used where quoted directly.

1. Do Catholics pray to statues?

"Catholics honor the holy ones and Saints by making a statue of them. It is a culture of remembering them." For example, we have numerous statues all over the country honoring past presidents of the U.S, but we do not worship them. It is the same thing for Catholic's.

2. Do Catholics worship the Pope?

"Catholics have a group of Cardinals that elect a Pope to become the leader. The Pope then uses the Doctrine to ensure the Catholic Community follows a set of tradition. The Pope is the Successor to Peter, Vicar of Christ, Leader of the Holy Catholic Church." In a word, NO. Catholics do not worship the Pope.

3. Are Catholics Christians?

"Catholics are Christians. But Christians are not necessarily Catholics."

4. Is the Virgin Mary Holy?

"Yes. Catholics believe that God chose Mary not because of some form of lottery draw. She was chosen as she was still pure at the time she was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Due to the belief of the Holy Trinity (God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one), the Virgin Mary becomes "mother of Christ", and as Christ is also God, "mother of God too."

However:

"Catholics don't worship Mary. They never have and never will because the Catholic Church teaching is that only God is worthy of worship. To worship anyone besides God is a sin. Mary is the Mother of God incarnate, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. The angel Gabriel called her "full of grace" and "highly favored". When Mary had given birth to the Savior she said "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked upon his handmaiden's lowliness; behold, from now on all ages will call me blessed." (Luke 1:46-48) The Catholic faith calls her 'full of grace' and 'blessed' because Sacred Scripture records this fact. She is not worshiped, she is honored and highly favored."

5. Are Catholic Masses boring?

To most, yes. I think this has more to do with the person's attitude before Mass than anything else. If you look at it as an obligation, like you have to be there, then yes, it will be boring. However, if you look at it from the perspective that you are entering the very presence of God to worship Him, I highly doubt you will find it boring. In other words, check your attitude at the door.

6. What on God's green earth is a Holy Relic? And are they worshiped?

To quote from Wikipedia, who attributes the following statement to Saint Jerome "We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the Creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore Him whose martyrs they are."

Relics are artifacts belonging to the saints and items associated with Christ Himself, such as the cross, manger, etc. Also:

"Catholics don't worship holy relics and they are not magic charms. Relics are scriptural and found in both the Old and New Testaments. In 2 Kings 13:21 we see a man brought back to life when his dead body touched the bones (relics) of the Prophet Elisha. In the New Testament we see that handkerchiefs touched by Paul were taken to the sick and they were healed. These healings are all from God. God using ordinary things to do extraordinary miracles with relics."

7. Do Catholics believe you have to earn your salvation?

In a word, NO.

"Salvation comes by grace from God. Faith and good works go hand in hand, neither 'earns' us our salvation, they are the fruits of the grace God gives us. Jesus Christ is God incarnate and came to bring salvation. No one 'earns' their salvation, if we could there would have been no need for Jesus."

Do you have any questions about the Catholic faith? Feel free to message them to me or leave them in the comments, and I will be sure to answer them!