While Catholics are sometimes accused of worshiping images , in violation of the first commandment , the Church say this is a misunderstanding . In the Church 's opinion , " the honor paid to sacred images is a ' respectful veneration ' , not the adoration due to God alone " . In the 8th century , heated arguments arose over whether religious icons ( in this context paintings ) was prohibited by the first commandment . The dispute was almost entirely restricted to the Eastern church ; the iconoclasts wished to prohibit icons , while the iconodules supported their veneration , a position consistently backed by the Western Church . At the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 , the ecumenical council determined that the veneration of icons and statues was not in violation of the commandment and stated " whoever venerate an image venerate the person portrayed in it . " At around the time of the controversy over Iconoclasm , the Western church began to use monumental sculpture , which by the Romanesque period became a major feature of Western Christian art , that have remained part of the Catholic tradition , in contrast to Eastern Christianity , which avoid large religious sculpture . The Catechism , using very traditional arguments , posits that God gave permission for images that symbolize Christian salvation by leaving symbols such as the bronze serpent , and the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant . It state that " by becoming incarnate , the Son of God introduced a new economy of images " .