Why does the Catholic Church worship idols?

Answer 1

The Catholic church does not worship idols, it says so in the Ten Commandments.

.Catholic AnswerCatholic Churches do NOT worship man made idols. This is a ridiculous piece of fantasy which was made up due to misunderstanding with regard to honor given to saints of God and their statues. Worship man made idols is specifically forbidden by the First Commandment of God (see Exodus XX). This is a piece of blasphemous nonsense that has been triumphed about by rather, forgive me, anti-Catholic hate groups who don't seem to have any idea what Catholicism is about. If they knew, they wouldn't even attempt to make such slanderous accusations. The Catholic Church is the only Christian Church which was actually started by Our Blessed Lord, Himself, who sent the Holy Spirit to guide it into all truth. The Catholic Church is Our Blessed Lord's Mystical Body, and His Bride - read St. Paul's letters. They do have statues in many churches and homes to remind them of the life of the Saints. They may ask the Saints to intercede for them/pray for them, but they only worship the three persons in the Trinity

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from

Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Idol. Any creature that is given divine honors. It need not be a figure or representation, and may be a person. In fact, it may be oneself, or some creation of one's own mind or will. An object becomes an idol when it is treated as an end in itself, with no reference to God. (Etym. Latin idolum, imagine, picture, idol; from the Greek eidolon, phantom, idol.)

from

A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

Idol. Any person or thing, other than God, usually an image of some kind, to which divine worship is paid. The images in Catholic churches are not idols because divine worship is not given to them. The "graven things" forbidden by Exodus xx, 4-5, are precisely idols as above, and not images in themselves.

There are no idols in Catholic Churches. The Catholic Church condemns idolatry. Those images are there to remind the faithful of those people that once lived.

Answer 2

No it is not! I am Catholic and we certainly don't worship idols. We worship God. One God.

Roman Catholic AnswerThe "worshipping idols" fallacy came about because of the statues in Catholic Churches and the prayers to saints, often said before such statues. This is ridiculous and just shows an ignorance of the Catholic religion. Statues, as such, were commanded by God, practically from the beginning when He commanded that statues of Seraphim be fashioned in gold and placed on the Ark of the Covenant. Statues are commonly used in Churches, like family photos are used, to remind people of those who are absent. We use them to call to mind the person represented and pray to that person - not to their statue!

Answer 3

No.

Ever since the days of the early Church (first centuries), the Catholic Profession of Faith has begun: "credo in Deum", "I believe in God". "This first affirmation of the Apostles' Creed is also the most fundamental. Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the First and the Last, the beginning and the end of everything. Faiith in God leads us to turn to him alone as our first origin and our ultimate goal, and neither to prefer anything to him nor to substitute anything for him."(Catechism Part I Section II Chapter I Paragraph I).

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord . . ." (Dt 6:4; Mk 12:29).

"The supreme being must be unique, without equal. . . If God is not one, he is not God" (Tertullian, Adv. Marc.)

The Catholic Church firmly condemns idolatry(idol-worship).

"The first commandment requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. [It] forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed himself to his people. [It] proscribes superstition. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, [of] silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshippers empty. Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc." (Catechism #2110-13)

The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone.

As Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, explained in 1265:

"Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is." (Summa Theologica)

The veneration of sacred images is based on the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God: "the Son...is the icon of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:13-15). God did give an injunction to not represent Him by any graven image, because He had revealed Himself as absolutely transcendent: He is all, yet greater than all His works; in Him we live, we move, and have our being. Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim. For these reasons, when around the year 700 AD a heresy developed aiming to destroy all religious icons (iconoclasty) the Church reunited the seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea (787) and explained the orthodoxy of the veneration of icons.

As for prayer to the saints, our earliest Profession of Faith further states: "I believe in the Communion of Saints". The communion of saints is the Church. We know that there is one body, the Church, of which we are all members, and whose Head is Christ. Sancti, then, refers to all the faithful baptized, members of the Church. This is how the apostles employ the word in Scripture. And we emphasize that all holiness comes from and resides in Christ in the same Profession of Faith as we tell Christ: "tu solo Sanctus", "you alone are the Holy One".

Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition reminds us of this sacred unity in Christ:

"None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself." (Romans 14:7)

"If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." (1 Corinthians 12:26-27)

"When the Lord comes in glory, and all his angels with him, death will be no more and all things will be subject to him. But at the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating in full light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is." (Mt 25:31; 1 Cor 15:26-27; Council of Florence [1439]:DS 1305).

"So it is that the union of the wayfarers with the brethren who sleep in the peace of Christ is in no way interrupted, but on the contrary, according to the constant faith of the Church, this union is reinforced by an exchange of spiritual goods." (Lumen Gentium)

"Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness...They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus ...So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped." (Lumen Gentium, cf. 1 Tim 2:5)

To the saints we offer veneration, infinitely less than the cult of adoration (latria) offered to God alone.

Answer 4

Catholic Answer

No, Catholics are Christians who worship (in the American meaning) God. Idolatry is the worship of idols, you are probably mean to ask are Catholics idolaters (worshippers of idols), and the answer is no, that is the most ridiculous thing in the world. It is from a misunderstanding of the worship of saints. This is a very common misconception of the part of American protestants as they do not understand the history of the English language. Worship, in English, means to acknowledge another's worth or dignity. In giving worship to God, we call this Latria in Latin. Worship of the saints and angels is called dulia, they are completely different things, but in English the word worship can be used to translate both of them. You see this in England where a magistrate is referred to as "Your Worship".

from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980 Worship. Acknowledgment of another's worth, dignity, or superior position. In religion, worship is given either to God, and then it is adoration, or to the angels and saints, and it is called veneration. Divine worship actually includes three principal acts, namely adoration (or the recognition of God's infinite perfection), prayer or the asking for divine help, and sacrifice or the offering of something precious to God. Worship as veneration also has three principal forms, whereby the angels and saints are honored for their sanctity, asked to intercede before the divine Majesty, and imitated in their love and service of God.