 While Catholics are sometimes accused of worshiping images , in violation of the first commandment , the Church says 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 ) were prohibited by the first commandment . The dispute was almost entirely restricted to the Eastern church ; the <unk> wished to prohibit icons , while the <unk> 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 <unk> an image <unk> the person portrayed in it . " At around the time of the controversy over <unk> , the Western church began to use monumental sculpture , which by the Romanesque period became a major feature of Western Christian art , that has remained part of the Catholic tradition , in contrast to Eastern Christianity , which avoids 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 <unk> on the Ark of the Covenant . It states that " by becoming <unk> , the Son of God introduced a new economy of images " . 
