What is the Catholic position on Exodus 20:4? This weekend my son and I participated in our Scouting council's annual Ten Commandments hike in which we walked to 10 different churches and heard a short talk on each of the 10 commandments from Exodus 20. The lone Catholic church on our route (churches were largely represented based on proximity, not theology) was assigned the following passage:


  You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth.&mdash;Exodus 20:4 (NJB)


(My very first problem in researching this question is that, while this was labeled the second commandment by the organizer of the hike, it's the second half of the first according to Catholic tradition.)

It seems we had some bad luck since the priest who was representing the Catholic position did not do a very good job of explaining idolatry to us. He mostly explained that the stained-glass windows (which were not unusual in the other churches we visited) and the statues (which were absolutely unique to that church) were not worshiped. Rather they were to be a reminder of the great saints of the past, their deeds, and that we could ask them to pray for us as we might ask a friend.



The particular difficulty I'd like to resolve in my own mind is why Catholic churches use statues, which are carved, rather than flat images. The Orthodox church specifically uses icons in order to avoid idolatry. Stained glass, for better or worse, has become a nearly universally accepted church decoration. To me, either of these art forms go a long way to helping remind us (and especially visual learners) the deeds of the saints without risking they will be worshiped. So what is the Catholic reasoning for including carved statues in places of worship?

Update: It occurs to me that if I'd asked the question a month or so ago, I would have been confronted with the statues many Protestants do set up in our churches: the Nativity scene.  My parent's church, where I was baptized, even includes a little ritual of having a child bring new figures to be added to the scene over the weeks of Advent.  In my rush to judgement, I didn't stop to think if I had a plank in my own eye.  Talk about hypocrisy!  So, I really am not trying to "score points" on my Catholic brothers and sisters or further the cause of the Reformation. I want to understand.
I was just reading this EWTN article on the 10 commandments in connection with another post on this site, but it's appropriate here too.
And I won't attempt to justify my Church beyond what the Catechism says:

2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new &quot;economy&quot; of images.
2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, &quot;the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype,&quot; and &quot;whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it.&quot;70 The honor paid to sacred images is a &quot;respectful veneration,&quot; not the adoration due to God alone:

Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. the movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.


CCC 2131-2132
Exodus states a few chapters after the Decalogue

Make two cherubim of beaten gold for the two ends of the propitiatory, fastening them so that one cherub springs direct from each end. The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, covering the propitiatory with them; they shall be turned toward each other, but with their faces looking toward the propitiatory.

Exodus 26:18-20
I'm not trying to point out inconsistencies.  I assume that the Bible is internally consistent and it's done a good job of ordering society for a long time.  It's pretty apparent that the Jews of the Bible had no problem smashing opposing nation's idols and there's no history of ancient busts of David or Solomon popping up.
So, as I meant to say a bit ago, when I referenced the EWTN article on the 10 commandments, they reflect the Natural Law.  They're not strange and arbitrary commands of God, as they would be if they favored iconography over sculpture.  One could say that you'd be less given to idolatry given an icon over a statue, but that'd be a natural law argument, not a purely theological one.
Finally, if Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath is made for man and not the other way around, then why is art not made for man?
Sacramentals do assist in prayer, some austere monastic types not like them, but others do.  To be able to talk to Mary, who hears your prayer and intercedes on your behalf, is something that can be helped through art.
A good priest will tell you, if you need something, turn to Mary.  Turning, is a physical act which requires a subject and when you see a statue of Mary in a Church, and to her left is Jesus, Body blood soul and divinity in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.  You've got a good basis for a spiritual platform from which to voice your petition.
The gist of it is, sacred art assists, rather than detracts, in the authentic worship of God.