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It makes a difference because saying have seen many who practice this behavior does not necessarily mean:
1. All believe this
2. anyone outside the group she has met or knows of believes this
3. This is set doctrine

To ask if M has spent a lot of time around Catholics indicates the number of persons from whom M has arrived at her conjecture (which is wrong btw)

To ask if M goes for mass helps identify if M does not know that in Mass we have praise and worship and all mention and direction is to God alone (Mary is only mentioned if she's in the gospel readings and perhaps in the sermon).

To ask how "many" is "many" is significant as one does not arrive at a conjecture on the beliefs of 1 billion by observing a few

to give you an example, if you lived in a small area of Manhattan and observed the folks there, and observed their behaviour and said "have seen many who practice this behavior." and jumped to the conclusion that all Americans are like that -- you would be wrong

If you had have gone thru Catechism classes and attended mass for years....it would signify that you knew what the mass and Church beliefs are -- far better than one who was just an observer or who saw things somewhere sometime ago

If you said you had gone to an Abbey and been taught by monks.... it would signify the same as above point

If you said your closest friends were catholic... well, that would not necessarily make you an expert in their faith, so yes I agree that this particular point on number of Catholic friends is irrelevant

*sigh*, yes some of my closest friends and co-workers were Catholic, very dedicated practicing Catholics.

I have neighbors here where I live who are the same, as I see them going to church in the morning as often as they can.

The Catholics I worked with went to many different parishes as they lived in a wide geographic area.

I have relatives who were priests and a nun and one relative in law who was a nun.

My experience is not limited and other former Catholics on this thread state the same experiences.