Why does the Catholic Church not only allow but promote the practice of owning and displaying statues?
The first reason has to do with the fact that Christianity is an incarnational religion. This means that visible, tangible realities are used either to embody or to represent the divine. Statues serve as visible reminders of persons who are considered sacred by the Church. Statues help us remember that saints and holy persons are not disembodied angels, but human beings like us. Statues also serve as reminders that we experience salvation incarnationally – in history, in the world, in our own bodies of flesh and blood. Yet, while statues have incarnational value, we must also keep in mind that their power is merely symbolic. This means that, while statues may certainly serve as powerful reminders of sacred persons, they have no power in themselves. It is precisely their power as symbols that makes statues an element of religious faith rather than superstition. The belief that spiritual power exists within things themselves, rather than in God, is at the heart of superstition. The Catho
