Why do Catholics have statues and sacred images?

The commandment forbids making idols to bow down to and serve as gods.

Yet God himself commands images in worship: two golden cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant, and carved cherubim, palm trees and flowers in Solomon's Temple.

God tells Moses to make a bronze serpent; whoever looks at it is healed. Jesus later compares it to himself lifted up on the Cross.

Centuries later, when the people began to burn incense to that bronze serpent, King Hezekiah broke it in pieces. The image was good; worshipping it was not.

Paul calls Christ the image of the invisible God, and Jesus tells Philip: whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

From the 3rd century, Christians painted the walls of the catacombs in Rome with Christ as the Good Shepherd, Jonah, Daniel and the Eucharistic meal. The house church at Dura-Europos, in Syria, was also decorated with scenes from the Gospels before the year 256.

A legend says that Saint Luke painted the first icon of Mary. It is a tradition, not a historical fact, but it shows how early Christians valued images.

In the 8th century, Byzantine emperors ordered icons destroyed. The Second Council of Nicaea (787) defended them: the honour given to an image passes to the person it represents.

In the 16th century, some reformers removed images from churches. The Council of Trent replied that images are honoured not because of any power in them, but because of those they represent, and warned against every superstition and abuse.

Adoration is owed to God alone; it belongs to no creature.

The Christian veneration of images does not contradict the commandment against idols, because the honour rendered to an image passes to its prototype, and whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it.

Because the Son of God became man and was seen, he can be depicted: this is the basis of Christian sacred art.

The use of images belongs to the popular piety that the Church encourages, as long as it leads people to Christ.