The Veneration of Saints of Holy Images [pp. 721-735]

THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. VII., No. 42.-SEPTEMBER, i868.
THE VENERATION OF SAINTS AND HOLY IMAGES.
THE veneration paid to saints by
Catholics with the formal approbation
or tacit sanction of the supreme authority in the church is, together with
the use made of their images and
that of Christ in religious worship,
under the same sanction, the one feature of the Catholic system most obnoxious to Protestants. They do not
hesitate ordinarily to qualify it as
idolatry, that is, as a rendering of
the worship due to God alone to creatures, both living and inanimate, similar to that which the heathen system
of polytheism ascribes to its numerous divinities and their inrtges.
We propose to discuss this matter
briefly, not with the intention of proving that the Catholic doctrine and
practice are truly a genuine outgrowth
of the Christian religion by extrinsic
evidence, but of showing their intrinsic harmony with Christian first principles, and refuting the objections
derived from these first principles
against them. As the subject naturally divides itself into two distinct
parts, already clearly indicated in our
opening paragraph, we shall confine
our remarks at present to the first
VOL. VII.-46
part of it, or that relating to the veneration of saints.
The preliminary charge of idolatry, or a direct contradiction to the
monotheistic doctrine of natural and
revealed theology, is perfectly groundless, and., however it may be modified
and diminished, there is not an atom
of truth in it upon which any objection to the Catholic doctrine can be
based.
Idolatry, or the worship of the
creature instead of the creator, originates in ignorance or denial of the
true conception of the one living and
true God. God is not worshipped,
because he is not known or believed
in. By necessary consequence, something which is not God is conceived
as highest, best, most excellent, most
powerful, without reference or relation
to God as the author and sovereign
of all that has any existence. The
pantheist is an idolater of all nature,
but especially of himself. Even Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were not
free from idolatrous principles, although probably free from all sin in
the matter, since they ascribed to the
universe a certain amount of being