ANSWER by Staff on September 15, 2003

Dear Yvonne: Well I will try to make a brief explanation. First of all, the Pope was not, and neither does any Catholic, pray TO a statue. The prayers are either to the saints or to God, but not to statues or paintings and such. The artwork and paintings are merely a visual aid to help us to focus on the real live person in heaven or to the living God. These statutes are NOT idols. Protestants the exact same thing whether they know it or not. They have a cross usually at the front of there church. Oftentimes people will pray in the pews facing this cross, or even come forward and kneel at the "altar" facing the cross or perhaps even an open bible. By doing this are these people worshiping the Cross or the Bible, or praying to the Cross or praying to the Bible. Of course, not. They are praying to God but the presence of the Bible or the Cross helps them to be in a prayerful frame of mind, it helps them to lift their minds to God. This is all that statues do. Secondly, the Bible does not condemn statues; it condemns the WORSHIP of statutes. The "graven image" clause in the Ten Commandments obviously does not mean that God is condemning graven images in-and-of-themselves, but the worship of those graven images as false gods. If it were true that God was condemning graven images in-and-of-themselves, then God sinned against His own rule since God commanded that the Ark of the Covenant be built with the graven images of angels on the top. The Temple that God commended to be built was also arrayed with all sorts of graven images of things on the earth, in heaven, and underneath. The commandment is to not WORSHIP graven images as god. The graven image clause is not really the 2nd Commandment, it is an illustration of how the First Commandment could be broken. At the time the biggest idolatry was the worship of false gods represented by statues. If God were to given the Ten Commandments today He would have probably used the common idolatries of today's world like "self", "money", "sports". etc. As for thanking Mary for the Pope's life, we must remember that we are a family and it pleases God that family members help each other. The source of all power and salvation is in God alone, but through His power, His children can help each other. The doctor who saved the Pope's life did not do it under his own power, it was the power of God who gave him the gifts needed to be able to save the Pope's life. We do nothing in our own power. In this case, for a variety of reasons, the Pope knew that Mary was the one who, through God, (just like the doctor did his thing through God), saved his life. It is proper to thank someone for doing that and the Pope thanks all those who were involved -- the body guards, the medical team, Mary, and God. I praise God that you are coming into His Church. Welcome. As you get to know the Church better you will begin to understand more about the family economy of God. It is so great that we are part of His family, not just symbolically or spiritually, but literally, and that we can help each other as Family. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary