08-17-2026, 10:41 AM
II. About the idolatrous Adorations, with which Protestants reproach Catholics.
— "Catholics allow creatures the adorations they owe to the Creator," — an oft-repeated charge made in pamphlets and books by the parsons, and re-echoed from their pulpits. We may repeat it over and again, that the Catholics adore only God; no use, — they know we are idolators, duly convicted, no more nor less than the Hottentots and the Cochin-Chinese.
Yet let us protest once more: We adore God, God alone, — we adore our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is God, — we adore neither the Virgin Mary nor the saints, — we honor and venerate them, we give them what is due to the mother and friends of our Lord and King. We beseech them to pray for us, because their prayers are more worthy and more acceptable to God than ours. What can be more simple? It must needs be an evil-minded spirit that will find in it an occasion for launching anathema against the Church.
The malignant slander that we adore the Pope is too ridiculous to deserve an answer.
They force themselves into seeing an adoration in every genuflection of ours. They exhibit no great proof of good sense in that. We go on our knees, because the humble and devout posture of the body has an influence over the soul, and disposes it to a prayer more recollected, and to a religion more profound. Who ignores the great influence of the body over the soul?
It is, moreover, very natural, that a heart penetrated with reverence, humility, and repentance, should bring the body to bend low, and thus agree in the worship of the spirit.
It is thus that we love to kneel, not only before our Lord Jesus Christ, to adore and beseech him, but even at the feet of his Blessed Mother, whom we respect so much, before the honored relics of martyrs and saints, and before the sacred image of the cross. In his law God does not forbid to venerate holy things; but he forbids to worship them. No Catholic will ever be found who adores a picture of Mary, a crucifix, or a relic, thereby confounding God with them.*
Let us then go on our knees, with an humble love, before the hallowed objects of the true worship of the true God; and likewise at the feet of the Vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the feet of Bishops and of God's priests, that we may receive their holy blessing; which is not the benediction of man, but of Jesus who dwells in them, and who, through them, blesses, enlightens, and sanctifies the world.
— "Catholics allow creatures the adorations they owe to the Creator," — an oft-repeated charge made in pamphlets and books by the parsons, and re-echoed from their pulpits. We may repeat it over and again, that the Catholics adore only God; no use, — they know we are idolators, duly convicted, no more nor less than the Hottentots and the Cochin-Chinese.
Yet let us protest once more: We adore God, God alone, — we adore our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is God, — we adore neither the Virgin Mary nor the saints, — we honor and venerate them, we give them what is due to the mother and friends of our Lord and King. We beseech them to pray for us, because their prayers are more worthy and more acceptable to God than ours. What can be more simple? It must needs be an evil-minded spirit that will find in it an occasion for launching anathema against the Church.
The malignant slander that we adore the Pope is too ridiculous to deserve an answer.
They force themselves into seeing an adoration in every genuflection of ours. They exhibit no great proof of good sense in that. We go on our knees, because the humble and devout posture of the body has an influence over the soul, and disposes it to a prayer more recollected, and to a religion more profound. Who ignores the great influence of the body over the soul?
It is, moreover, very natural, that a heart penetrated with reverence, humility, and repentance, should bring the body to bend low, and thus agree in the worship of the spirit.
It is thus that we love to kneel, not only before our Lord Jesus Christ, to adore and beseech him, but even at the feet of his Blessed Mother, whom we respect so much, before the honored relics of martyrs and saints, and before the sacred image of the cross. In his law God does not forbid to venerate holy things; but he forbids to worship them. No Catholic will ever be found who adores a picture of Mary, a crucifix, or a relic, thereby confounding God with them.*
Let us then go on our knees, with an humble love, before the hallowed objects of the true worship of the true God; and likewise at the feet of the Vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the feet of Bishops and of God's priests, that we may receive their holy blessing; which is not the benediction of man, but of Jesus who dwells in them, and who, through them, blesses, enlightens, and sanctifies the world.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre