Protestants and others say that Catholics break the First Commandment by
having images in their churches, because the First Commandment says:
"Thou shalt not make graven images or the likeness of anything upon the
earth," etc. Now, if that is exactly what the Commandment means, then
they break it also, because they make the images of generals, statesmen,
writers, etc., and place them in their parks. They also take photographs
of their relatives and friends and hang them on the walls of their
homes. They do this, they say, and we believe them, to show their
respect and veneration for the persons represented, and not to worship
their images. Now we do no more. We simply place in our churches the
images of saints to show our respect and veneration for the persons they
represent, and not to worship the images themselves. So if we break the
First Commandment, they who make any picture or statue break it also.
Can our accusers not see that they and every citizen do the very thing
for which they reproach us? On Decoration Day they place flowers around
the statue of Washington and other great men. Does anyone believe that
they are trying to honor the piece of metal or stone, or that the metal
or stone statue knows that it is being honored? Certainly not. They do
so to honor Washington or whomsoever the statue represents; and for the
same reason Catholics place flowers and lights around the statues and
images of saints. Every child knows that the wood in the statue might as
well have been a pillar in the Church, and that its selection for a
statue was merely accidental, and hence he knows that the statue cannot
hear or see him, and so he prays not to the statue but to the person it
represents. Again if you can offer a person insult by dishonoring his
image, may we not honor him by treating it with respect? What greater
insult, for instance, could be offered to your deceased father and
yourself than to burn him in effigy, or contemptuously trample his
picture under foot in your presence? Thus they who treat the images of
Christ or His saints with disrespect dishonor Christ and His saints.

Again we may learn our religion by our sight as well as by our hearing,
and may be led by these visible objects to a knowledge of the invisible
things they represent. Let us take an example. A poor ignorant man
enters a Catholic church, and sees hanging there a picture of St.
Vincent de Paul. He can learn the life of the saint from that picture