The Church's teaching and authority · Question 1

You bow in front of a statue of Mary and say it isn't idolatry?

A watercolor of a lamb looking toward the cross through a picture of the Madonna and Child

The question: “You pray and bow in front of statues of Mary — aren't you serving Mary and the statue like God?”

The Church's answer: Adoration, the worship given to God alone, goes to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and to no one else. The Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints are venerated as the family of faith who answered God's grace, and we ask them to pray to God for us. Mary is not a source of salvation either; she always points to Jesus. Respect for a sacred image doesn't stop at wood or stone — it goes to the person that image represents.

An analogy — a family photo and the person in it

Kissing a photo of a grandmother who lives far away doesn't mean you think the paper and ink are your grandmother. The photo makes you remember someone you love. Icons and statues are not gods in themselves either; they are signs that help you remember Jesus and the saints and turn your heart toward God.

This analogy doesn't explain the whole doctrine of the veneration of saints. It shows only one thing: the honor doesn't stay on the wood or the stone, it goes to the person the image points to.

If they press further: “But there really are people who go to Mary and no one else.” — If some devotion looks like it comes ahead of Jesus and the Gospel, that may be a misunderstanding or a practice that has lost its balance. Distinguish one person's mistaken behavior from what the Church teaches, and say that every true Marian devotion has to lead closer to Christ.

In one sentence: “Catholics adore God alone, and we ask Mary and the saints to pray to God together with us.”