Commenting on the Second Council of Nicea, Catholic theologian Francis A. Sullivan affirmed that this council allowed for, not the veneration of the “prototype” in heaven an image represents, but the image itself:
With the approval of
Pope Adrian I, the council took place in 787 and issued a solemn decree
approving the veneration of images and distinguishing such veneration from the
worship that is due to God alone. It further explained that one who venerates
an image venerates the person represented by it. (Francis A. Sullivan, Creative
Fidelity: Weighing and Interpreting Documents of the Magisterium [New York:
Paulist Press, 1996], 65)
