UGANDA: “Catholics Do not Worship Images,” Says Theologian Cleric
Sr. Henriette Anne (FSSA)
At a recent Zoom meeting organized by the Uganda National Catholic Council of Lay Apostolate (UNCCLA) to shade light on the aspect of idolatry in relation to worship, a theologian has clarified that Catholics do not worship images as some people from other denominations imagine.
Sharing a theological response for the session themed; Idols and Worship: A Catholic Theological Response, the Dean of Studies at St. Mbaaga Seminary, Ggaba in Uganda Rev. Fr. Ambrose Bwangato stressed that images are never worshiped in the Catholic Church.
“Catholics have been accused wrongly, we do not worship images,” Fr. Bwangato said and elucidated “rather we venerate because worship and adoration are acts that are reserved for God”.
Expounding on the veneration of images, the cleric who doubles as Director of Pontifical Mission Societies in the Archdiocese of Kampala explained that the visual representations used in the Church are to help Christians in contemplation.
“If we have an icon or stature of the Divine Mercy, this icon only points to the person who is represented and this icon helps us to extend our focus, contemplation, and our imagination to reality which we cannot grasp by mere imagination,” he explained to the online participants defining an idol in a religious context as “a representation or a symbol of an object of worship”.
From the scriptures point of view the theologian shared his reflection that, “idolatry is regarded as a pagan origin that was imported among the Hebrews through contact with pagan nations, and the first instance of idolatry in the Scriptures was when Rachel stole her father’s teraphim (household gods) which were the relics for worship of other gods.”
According to the Ugandan cleric, idolatry in itself is not a fundamental sin, but a grave sin with “denial of God’s omnipresence that occurs with the belief that God can be corporeal.”
He further reminded the online participants that the first and second commandments which were designed to direct people of God in a way consistent with their faithfulness to the living God, are directed against idolatry of every form.
The priest warned that calling Catholics idolaters because they have images of Christ is based on misunderstanding or ignorance of the Bible and why statues are used in Church. Besides he added, “God has no visible shape and it is absurd to make or worship images. Instead, people must worship the invisible God alone”.
Fr. Bwangato concluded that if people were to search the Scriptures, they would find the truth that God forbade the worship of statues but did not forbid the religious use of statues, “instead, God actually commanded their use in a religious context.”
