Statues and Images
Objection: “Why are Catholic Churches and homes decorated with
statues and images in clear breach of the Ten Commandments?”
God prohibits in the Ten Commandments the making of idols and the
worshipping of them: “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or
any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to
them or serve them…for I the Lord your God am a jealous God” (Exod.
20:4-5). At first instance it would appear that this commandment imposes
an absolute prohibition against the making and use of all images per se.
However, a thorough examination of the Old Testament precludes such an
interpretation, as this would necessitate God prohibiting what He allows
and commands elsewhere, especially concerning the Temple of Jerusalem
itself.
It follows that if the Commandments prohibited the making of any images
whatsoever, Protestants ought to remove and destroy all their statues of
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and even Mount Rushmore, as well
as burning all their pictures of relatives and friends. Common sense though
tells us that such would be an absurd outcome.
The Catholic doctrine on the veneration of images was fully outlined by the
Second Council of Nicaea in 787 AD:
“Proceeding as it were on the royal road and following the divinely
inspired teaching of our holy Fathers, and the tradition of the
Catholic Church (for we know that this tradition is of the Holy Spirit
which dwells in the Church), we define with all care and exactitude,
that the venerable and holy images are set up in just the same way as
the figure of the precious and life-giving cross; painted images, and
those in mosaic and those of other suitable materials, in the holy
churches of God, on holy vessels and vestments, on walls and in
pictures, in houses and by the roadsides; images of our Lord God and
Savior Jesus Christ and of our undefiled Lady, the holy God-bearer,
and of the honorable angels, and of saintly and holy men. For the
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