[aephi alum]

Quite right that Mary isn't worshipped; rather, as I understand it, she is honored as a mother, and specifically as Jesus' mother.

As I recall from my Catholic education, they consider that there is a special place in heaven for the unbaptized who never had a chance to learn about Christianity. This would include children who died before being baptized, people who lived in remote locations where Christianity had not been introduced, etc.

The "official" Jewish teaching is that we are the chosen people... but many Jews (myself included) believe that the Jewish people are not so much the chosen people, as a chosen people. Different people are chosen to serve and worship God, or gods, or a supreme being, or whatever, in different ways.

As for confession... even growing up Catholic, I never understood the whole "confess to a priest" thing. I went to confession weekly for several years after my first confession, mainly because my dad did. My mother almost never went to confession; she was raised Anglican, and in the Anglican Church you pray directly to God for forgiveness. That stuck with me. In Judaism, you also pray directly to God, not just on Yom Kippur but year-round... and that's what I do.