Are you serious? You think that hundreds of millions of intelligent people would worship inanimate objects? What would be the point of that? Might as well worship chairs or doorknobs. However, the Catholic Church does honor its great champions of the faith, just as our country honors the great champions of its history. Do you think the Lincoln Memorial is a pagan shrine? The Catholic Church absolutely forbids idolatry in every form, and considers it one of the greatest sins that can be committed.
It's amazing that ignorance is still around. NO. Catholics do not worship statues.
Like Orthodox Christian icons, statues are VISUAL AIDS.
They help Christians focus and to be in a prayerful mood.
@ Anonymous -- Praying to is NOT worshiping. Get the story straight.
參考: Greek Orthodox Christian
No, they don’t worship the statues. You need to understand the doctrine before passing judgment on the ritual. The image is a visual reminder (nowhere in scripture is it commanded to close your eyes while praying), of who they’re talking to. Catholics believe that those departed in heaven can actually hear us talk to them, and then intercede at the throne where Jesus mediates for us. (Scripture doesn’t call Jesus an intercessor, He’s explicitly the mediator).
In Roman Catholic doctrine, veneration and adoration are seperate and distinct from worship, which (according to their doctrine) is reserved for God alone. This contrast vastly with all other religions which use images and statues as part of their traditions in that they (the NON Christian/Catholic/orthodox) believe that the image is the god or goddess.
They kneel before them and pray through them, without a doubt. For some reason they think these graven images stand in the places of those they wish to reach in prayer. Of course that concept is wholly unbiblical, and illogical.
Exodus 20:4-5 — Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
They are worshiping the statues, like the idolaters in the Old Testament. Catholic beliefs lead to torments in hell because they teach works for salvation. That is the biggest problem. So stay away from catholicism. Here is what you need to believe: Nobody can be good enough to avoid hell. So to avoid hell, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is that easy. When a person dies, they will be in heaven or hell, and they can't get out of hell if that is where they go. To go to heaven and not go to hell, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, without adding any of your works. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God and who died on the cross and shed His blood to pay for all our sins, and who resurrected from the dead. See Romans 4:5 and 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
Catholics do indeed worship lumps of plaster..look at any Mass or Catholic church service on youtube and you'll be blown away by the amount of superstitious paraphernalia on display..and the two most prominent objects, the altar..once used to slaughter humans and later animals..and the crucifix used to slaughter their god.. and the symbolic, ritualistic, cannibalistic devouring of the flesh of their dead hero..and yet they claim that they aren't pagans..why then does their religion have all the hallmarks of a pagan religion...?
not that i know of but some might
Some do, some don't. But Rome does not clearly discourage idolatry.