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Catholic Teaching Forbids
Worshiping Graven Images
We hear it from our non-Catholic friends all the time: “You people are taught to worship statues.”
That criticism is unfounded.
Catholics who observe the teachings of the church do not worship or adore statues. The Catholic position is that statues of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and such saints as Francis of Assisi and Elizabeth Ann Seton stand as reminders of the exemplary virtue of those depicted. In this respect, church statues are no different from statues of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria, and the U. S. Marine Corps War Memorial of six soldiers raising the American flag on Iwo Jima.
Before the invention of the printing press, bishops and priests used statues, canvas paintings, murals, carvings, stained glass, mosaics, and other visual media to teach the mostly uneducated masses about the Bible and morality. A wall mosaic might have depicted Jesus suffering on the cross to redeem humankind. A stained-glass window might have shown the nativity, including the adoration of the Magi. A painting might have focused on the Last Supper, as in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous work.
These and other works served not only as visual aids to churchgoers but also as artistic achievements that ennobled the church environment. They helped make a church a fitting place to pray, meditate, and participate in mass and special ceremonies and rituals.
Adoration or worship of a marble or painted figure, on the other hand, is idolatry. It elevates a statue or another depiction of a supposedly spiritual being to the status of God. The first of the Ten Commandments denounces this practice. The best-known example of idolatry is in Exodus 32. The account describes the Israelites’ creation of a golden calf to worship in place of God.
Metaphorically, many people today commit a grave offense when they worship money, power, prestige, or fame. Each of these becomes a golden calf that replaces God.
The bible admonishes, “Where your treasure-house is, there your heart is too (Matthew 6:21).
Before retiring, Michael J. Cummings was a public-school English teacher, a journalist for 17 years, an adjunct instructor of English for 19 years at the Pennsylvania College of Technology, a freelance writer, and the author of more than thirty e-books and five print books. He was born in 1941 in Williamsport, Pa.
