Saints LightDo Catholics Worship Mary and Statues?
Catholics adore God alone; they honor Mary and the saints and ask for their prayers, and they use statues the way a family uses photographs, to remember and love the person shown.
What this lesson teaches
- Adoration belongs to God alone; Mary and the saints receive honor, not worship.
- The Bible forbids idols, yet God himself commanded sacred images like the cherubim.
- Honor shown to an image passes to the person it represents.
- Praying to Mary means asking her to pray for us, as we ask any fellow Christian.
Catechism paragraphs this lesson cites
- CCC 956
- CCC 971
- CCC 1159-1162
- CCC 2129-2132
CCC means the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Saints Light teaches it in its own words and never quotes it. Look up any paragraph in a printed copy or at vatican.va. See every lesson by paragraph in the Catechism index.
Scripture read in this lesson: Luke 1:48; Exodus 25:18; John 2:5.
A sample question from this lesson
What is the difference between adoration and veneration?
- Adoration is for Mary, veneration is for God
- Adoration is worship due to God alone; veneration is honor given to saints
- They are the same thing with different names
- Veneration is only for statues
Show the answer
Adoration is worship due to God alone; veneration is honor given to saints. The lesson explains that worship belongs to God alone, while Mary and the saints receive honor (CCC 971).
The lesson in the app has three questions, each with an explanation.
Read the full lesson in the app
"Do Catholics Worship Mary and Statues?" is lesson 8 of Answers to Hard Questions. In Saints Light you get the whole teaching, the Scripture quoted in full, all three questions and a step to live it this week.
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Related lessons
- The First Commandment: God Comes First (The Commandments)
- Mary and the Saints: The Family of God (Start Here, free)
- Do Catholics Worship Mary? (Mary and the Saints)
- the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints (The Creed, free)