Statues?

[Leopard]

How does the Catholic Church address things like crowning statues, dressing them, or adorning them with any type of jewelary, like necklaces, etc.

Thanks is advance for your reply.

They are different forms of artistic embellishment, not different in principle from painting a statue so that it may look more beautiful or realistic than plain plaster.

That being said, though, it is possible to go overboard, and create a gaudy, tacky effect through over embellishment, as I think is sometimes done in the case of representations of the Infant of Prague statues, for example, with lacy, frilly, poofy gowns. That is just my artistic opinion, though, and is not intended to convey a moral judgment or to imply that differing artistic opinions are wrong.

 

[Newbie2]

It is the interior intention of the person involved and not the outward display (kissing, crying, kneeling, bowing) that differentiates legitimate respect from idolatry. If the person involved thinks that the creature or created thing is divine, then he is guilty of the sin of idolatry. Otherwise, he does nothing wrong.

By the way, I don’t think someone with such reservations about approved Catholic practices as you seem to have should be an altar server at this time. If a person freely does something that he is convinced is wrong, he sins. (See James 4:17)

First paragraph, . Good answer.

Second paragraph, perhaps, but reservations about something aren’t necessarily practices one is convinced is wrong.

Fides quarens intellectum!

 

[Margarite]

Its just that I was so confused of the Idea of kissing, kneeling and bowing before a statue. I’m againts the act of this and I do not practice it anymore because I think its wrong and sinful.
I hope all of you will accept my apology.

Please don’t apologize! I find this conversation stimulating!
I too find kissing a statue excessive, but kneeling and bowing before a statue is not bad.

When I do it I am not bowing or kneeling before a statue, or a saint, no, I am bowing or kneeling before God.
My family just said a novena to St. Jude. We knelt before his statue ( we kneel because we feel that that is the best position to pray in) and asked his intercession before God regarding our problem. We were not asking St. Jude to do anything but pray for our intention. We are sinful people and St. Jude is now clean of all sin. He can much better present our petition to God than we can.

I cannot remember who said it, but one of the saints said that we should present all our petitions to God through Mary because she knows best how to win his favor. Just as at the Wedding at Canaan. Mary knew how to influence her son into doing what was needed by the people. She knew how to say it. I know this is a childish way of explaining it because God knows all and because they may not even use words in heaven, but in a way this is the best way for us humans to understand it. It is like when a child needs something instead of going to the more domineering parent (usually the father) they ask the more gentle parent to ask the other parent. In my family, if we want something really badly we will ask our mom to influence our dad. Not because he is mean or because he does not like to give us stuff, but rather because we may say it the wrong way so he will take it the wrong way. My mom knows my dad’s mood and just how to ask him and it usually works. On the other hand if we are feeling sick or hungry we will go to my dad. He has an huge amount of pity and he know just how to fix such problems. It is just knowing the right words to use and knowing the other person so well that you can know the best way to get what you want.
Mary is the mother of all and as such she loves us and wants us to get to heaven and she also knows the trials of living on earth so she wants it as easy for us as possible. Just as at the wedding at Canaan Our Lady did not want the host to suffer needlessly, and neither does she want us to suffer needlessly.

 

[Joysong]

FranciscoIsrael,

In this post you depict the Holy Father as doing something very wrong as he venerated the cross of Jesus.

I also note that this was dated March 2000, which would make you only 7-1/2 years old. This tells me that you clearly had outside influences tampering with your mind (!), for at that age you could not have formed a theological opinion, nor would you have understood the scriptures that you now present in these posts of yours. [Or else, maybe you are entering your posts under a guise, as was suggested?]

You really need to obtain orthodox spiritual direction from someone other than the person(s) who is teaching you these errors. Is there some valid reason why you cannot accept the comments from a Doctor of the Church as presented in another thread, nor to accept the many excellent replies offered in order to help you?

God bless