God and Religion

This is my question, do I need a religion to have a relation ship with God? My answer to that question a No. I am a Catholic by birth and started studying about religions in my spare time. What I found that there is no religion in this world created by God. What is shocking about all religions is that God has become a merchandise for religions to sell and establish organizations.
I have been reading the New Testament as carefuly as I can. I was looking for some indication that Jesus created this Catholic Religion. In fact Jesus said this in several times that I did not come to abolish the faith he was fallowing at that time but to reform it and make it easy for people to fallow.
Then I looked in to the history of disciples and what they did after the death of Jesus. There is no place I could find Peter organizing a church on the contrary it was James brother of Jesus wanted to organize groups to remember Jesus and keep his teachings alive. Not only James, Mary Magdalene was also a strong leader in that group. They never discussed about leaving Judaism. Judaism already had several sects at that time and the Jesus movement became another one that is all.
If you read letters of Paul to peter and others we will not find Paul addressing Peter as a leader of the Jesus movement. Paul always addressed every one brothers and sisters. If Paul is considered as one of the early leaders of the Catholic Church then why Paul never initiated the creation of this hierarchy we see in the church today and most of the rituals practiced by Catholics.
Early leaders of the Jesus movement wanted honestly spread the Good News and practice what Jesus taught them. They considered all members in the group as equal no master no priest. I wanted to know since when this hierarchy of Pope, bishop and priest started in Christianity. Apostle Paul or Peter never considered themselves infallible. They believed only the power worthy of calling Father or Holy the God who is in heaven. We can see that in the Bible, Jesus telling that there is only one Heavenly Father and people on earth are equal in front of God and there is no servant there is no master.
Christianity became as an organized religion under the Roman emperor Constantine some time in the third century several years after the death of Paul and Peter. Constantine was a follower of paganism. He was a clever politician too. He did see in Rome so many people converting in to the Jesus movement he knew that persecuting them will not work. What he did in order to control Christians he accepted Christianity as the official religion of Rome. To make other Romans happy and bring in to this new Christianity ,Constantine introduced so many customs from the pagan worship in to the Christianity.
Constantine knew that with out some form of hierarchy in the church he will not be able to control all Christians he wanted form Christianity in to another form of authoritarian system. If we look how Popes and bishops behaved in the 4th ,5th , and 6th centauries we can see so many ruthless and cruel Popes, wanted to exercise and keep power over others. One time popes acted like kings ordering elimination of enemies. Martin Luther left the church in protest of all corruptions were happening at that time.
I want know why do we need intermediaries like Mother Mary and other saints to approach God? Jesus always prayed to God in private and with out any help from others. Jesus never prayed from books or repeated what others said in the synagogue. According Mathew Jesus told people that when you pray go in to your closet and close the door and pray. Idol worship and public prayers were forbidden by Jesus. Jesus never believed in rituals that is why he said one time that Sabbath is for people and not the other way.
When I was growing up I never seen my grand parents or parents reading bible. We had so many prayer books in home but no bible. Prayer for my grand parents and parents was saying rosary and reading some prayer from a book written by some one. They knew Jesus, a Jesus given to them by priests. They never looked in to find God for themselves. I received my religious education same way from priests and nuns. They never told me to read bible only thing they wanted me to do was to learn how to say rosary and learn all the rituals in the church. There is no point in finding God by fallowing traditions given by parents because parents never received an accurate picture of God. Parents were accustomed to look at a stone or wood carving and think that is God.
John Kunthara