Just because a Pope....any Pope says something, doesn’t make it so. ONLY when they are speaking for the CHURCH is it Infallible. PJPII had a very deep love and devotion to Mary.....he did not IDOLIZE her or WORSHIP her.
I beg to differ. Cardinal Antonio Bacci, in his devotional material, specifically equates "veneration" with "worship". Although "worship" is further parsed into dulia and latria (veneration vs adoration), Cardinal Bacci clearly uses the word worship to define the veneration acts of bowing and praying to saints:
....The literature of the Saints is a practical complement to the Gospel, because it shows us how the Gospel should be lived.The worship of the Saints is an act of veneration (dulia), not of adoration (latria), which can be given only to God. It is wrong to imagine, as many Protestants do, that by praying to and venerating the Saints we subtract something from the homage we owe to God. The veneration of the Saints and the adoration of God are entirely distinct activities. Moreover, the Saints are the faithful servants of God and intercede with Him on our behalf. By venerating and invoking them, we honour the Giver of all holiness. If anyone, on the other hand, were to disregard the worship of God in favour of devotion to the Saints, he would be making a serious mistake. A person who goes into a church and rushes over to a statue of the Blessed Virgin or of one of the Saints, without giving a thought to the living and real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist, is developing a false and sentimental piety.