What is the basis of the non catholic denominations to hold catholics as Idolaters I was reading this article on an authoritative bible site . I was wondering what is the doctrinal bases to hold Catholics as Idolaters 

Here is the excerpt:


  Life Magazine, reporting the ceremonies in Ottawa, Canada, in June,
  1947, at the Marian Congress, pointed out that a great procession of
  devout people knelt and kissed the foot of the giant statue of Mary
  "Until the paint wore off its toes." Pictures in L'Europeo, an Italian
  newspaper, of April 5, 1947, shows that devout Catholics in Naples
  continue to crawl at full length on their stomachs before the images
  of their Madonnas and lick the ground with their tongues on their way
  to the statues. Some years ago, the New York Department of Health was
  compelled to put a stop to this practice among the Italian people in
  the Bronx, because it resulted in so many cases of tetanus. Such
  idolatry!
The basis for claiming that Catholicism is idolatry, whether valid or not, is that various Catholic beliefs conflict with Protestant beliefs and doctrines. The list includes the following (and includes a Catholic answer to each claim in the interest of being fair and balanced, and not turning this into a Truth answer):


Catholics pray to saints, and to Mary. Many Protestants equate this to worshiping them.  


The Catholic view is that they are asking these saints and Mary to intercede with God for them.

Catholics practice confession to a man (A Priest, etc.) when Scripture tells us we should confess our sins directly to God. They believe that the priest has the power, through the authority of the Church, to absolve sins. Non-Catholics believe this is attributing powers that only God has to the Church, or to a man.  


The Catholic position is that this is a delegated authority - delegated to the Church by Christ, and to the Priest by the Church.

Some non-Catholics equate the Eucharist with idolatry, claiming that Catholics worship the transmutated wafer and wine as idols.  


This is clearly not how Catholics view the Eucharist. Catholics hold to a very literal interpretation of "Take, eat, this is my body" and "take, drink, this is my blood".

Some Protestants claim that the God worshiped by Catholics is nothing like the God of the Bible. They go so far as to say that all of the additional sacraments, ritual, and mysticism in the Catholic Church borrow from Pagan religions, and that the Church has become polluted, and no longer worships the true God.


Of course, Catholics don't see it this way.





* Note that in the above, it's not only Catholics that practice these things or hold these views. It's phrased that way because the question asks about Catholics only.