Dear Tim,

I'm assuming that you have been listening to anti-Catholic teachers, presumably some sort of Protestants, who have been misleading you as to Catholic teaching.  Hopefully, we can clear a few things up.

First, God never coerces, nor does the Blessed Mother Mary, nor do they manipulate anyone.  The Holy Spirit can encourage us, advise us, embolden us, and strengthen us in many respects, but never against our will.  God is love, and love always respects free will—that is why this world is such a mess.  If we were automatons, we would do exactly what God wanted all the time, but since we are free and fallen, we don't.  The brokenness of the world speaks to the fact that we haven't been coerced.  When God heals us of our brokenness, He will bring us to His kingdom where all do His Will joyfully and freely without coercion because they have true love for the Father's will and the grace to carry it out.

Second, no one stands between God and us or rather the Father, but the Son, for he is the sole mediator (cf. 1 Timothy 2:1-7).  That being said, he has commissioned all of us to pray for one another, thereby enrolling us in a kind of mediatorship that is linked and dependent on Him.  We act for the sake of others because he empowered us to do so and commands us to do so.

In the same way, Christ chose specific men to be Apostles, gave them specific responsibilities and the corresponding authority and power to carry them out. Chief among these was the power to forgive sins: "whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, whose sins you retain are retained." (cf. John 20:19-23).  Also, at the Last Supper, He instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist, commanding his Apostles to "Do this in memory of me." (cf. Luke 22:19-20).

These ministries were passed on to the successors of the Apostles, the bishops they ordained, and likewise to our current day.  The bishops share part of their ministry with Priests: those they ordained to fulfill part of the ministry.  All of this was Christ empowering the Church to carry on His work in the world.  That doesn't mean people can't pray to God at any time, any place for any reason, but that He gave these things as gifts to serve one another because He includes us in His work.  

You see, if you look at the big picture, Christ looks like He stepped away at the Resurrection when He really shifted gears into a new era of changing the world through the grace disseminated through His Body, the Church, literally a person-to-person communal spreading of His Gospel.  You and I are enrolled in His plan, so are His Bishops, the priests, the deacons, the healers, the teachers, the doctors, and everyone.

Lastly, 

Don't listen to those who have no understanding but only seek to divide and mislead.  

Read some questions and answers from our database for more on these matters, or get a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Peace,