The Bible says in Deuteronomy  5:8, when Moses was presenting the 10 commandments: "You  shall not make yourself an idol in the form of anything in  heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.   You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I  the Lord your God, am a jeaulous God..."

Jesus said: "I  am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father  except  through me." (John  14:6).

So then, is it correct for Catholic churches and  other churches ot have statutes of saints and Mary in their church?  I  grew up in a Catholic church and it was often that people woud touch the  feet of Mary or do the sign of the cross in front of her statute when  entering the church.  Also, just yesterday I went to St. Patrick's  Cathedral Church in NYC (as i have gone many times) and there you will  see many sections of the statutes of different saints and their story.   That's not a problem but in front of them is a kneeling board and rows  of candles that people light to kneel and pray in front and/or to them.

Not  to mention that Catholics have prayers for saints and the "Hail Mary"  prayer.  Isn't this worshipping 'idols'?  Jesus said that, "no one comes  To the Father EXCEPT THROUGH ME."  Why then would we pray kneeling  before a saint or Mary or say a prayer in their name? 

I must  say, I did this yesterday without thinking of it but lately I've been  thinking about what it means to worship idols and then today I was  reading the Bible and it stated that nothing/no one, not even in the  heavens (i.e. angels, saints, Mary) shall be made into an idol,  worshipped (i.e. praying to them) or bowed down to. 

On the question of imagery in liturgy;

Just as intercessory prayers to the saints are not the focus of Catholic liturgy in either the Eastern or Western Rites, so to are the images not a focus but an incorporation in the commemoration of the Crucifixtion and Resurrection.

The usage also varies according to tradition. You may notice, in many, but not all Catholic churches, that the statues and icons are placed in such a way that they frame but not dominate the altar. Many cathedrals especially in France, Spain and Italy have a more lavish exterior and comparitively bare interior. In the Eastern Rite churches, as it is in the Orthodox Church, three-dementional art is rare.

Theoretically, when the invisible God became visible by the Incarnation we could have an image of him:

"2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh  ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the  veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the  angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God  introduced a new "economy" of images." (CCC)

Also, we have Scriptural as well as Traditional basis:

"People who oppose religious statuary forget about the many passages where the Lord commands the making of statues. For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold [i.e., two gold statues of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18–20).

David gave Solomon the plan "for the altar of incense made of refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this he made clear by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all, all the work to be done according to the plan" (1 Chr. 28:18–19). David’s plan for the temple, which the biblical author tells us was "by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all," included statues of angels.

Similarly Ezekiel 41:17–18 describes graven (carved) images in the idealized temple he was shown in a vision, for he writes, "On the walls round about in the inner room and [on] the nave were carved likenesses of cherubim." (www.catholic.com/library/Saint_Worship.a...)

And, we must understand the differentiation between adoration and veneration as I provided previously:

"2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the  first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to  an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image  venerates the person portrayed in it." The honor paid to sacred images  is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:

Religious worship is not directed to images  in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive  aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the  image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose  image it is." (CCC)

Furthermore,

"The fact that someone kneels before a statue to pray does not mean that he is praying to the statue, just as the fact that someone kneels with a Bible in his hands to pray does not mean that he is worshiping the Bible. Statues or paintings or other artistic devices are used to recall to the mind the person or thing depicted. Just as it is easier to remember one’s mother by looking at her photograph, so it is easier to recall the lives of the saints by looking at representations of them." (www.catholic.com/library/Saint_Worship.a...)

Happy Christmas,

Bezant