Expert: Marco - 9/5/2011

Question
As the subject says i wanted to ask some things bout idol worship. We Catholics use idols and images. We even worship them but we are told it's veneration. But there are some passages that show what we do is wrong. Can you please clarify?

Deuteronomy 5, verses 8 to 10 says "Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth. Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, for I am the Lord you God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me and their descendents down to the third and fourth generation. But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey me".
This is one of the commandments that is skipped in our copy of 10 commandments.

Also Deuteronomy 4, verses 15 to 19 says "When the Lord spoke to you from the fire of Mount Sinai, you did not see any form. For your own good, then, make certain that you do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all-whether man or woman, animal or bird, reptile or fish. Do not be tempted to worship and serve what you see in the sky-the sun, the moon, and the stars. The Lord your God has given these to all other peoples for them to worship".

So aren't what we doing wrong?

Also how is praying to Mary and the saints justified? And how is the Rosary a form of prayer?
Aren't we asked to pray to God alone?

Answer
Dear Nisha,

primitive peoples were used to worship idols; this means that they believed that these objects (the idols) had special powers and they directed to these objects their adoration.
This is certainly a grave sin, because objects have no power and they deserve no kind of worship.
The Lord ordered the Jews not to make images of anything in heaven or earth, because there were the danger for them to fall into the temptation to worship them.
There is indeed no sin in making images of creatures (for example to keep the photographs of our children), if we know they are only objects which are not to be worship.

Your brother in Christ,

Marco