I have addressed the claim by some (not all) Catholic apologists that images/icons do not receive any veneration in Catholic theology, only their “heavenly prototypes” (i.e., the saints the images depict):
See also:
At the risk of being accused of engaging in “overkill,” I will present some more evidence, this time from the 1917 Code of Canon Law. The following comes from:
Edward N. Peters, Curator, The 1917 Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law: In English Translation with Extensive Scholarly Apparatus (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001)
Canon 1255
§ 1. To the most Holy Trinity and to each of its Persons, [and] to Christ the Lord, even under the sacramental species, there is owed the worship of latria; to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the cult of hyperdulia [is owed]. The others reigning with Christ in heaven, the cult of dulia [is owed].
§ 2. Also to sacred relics and images there is a veneration and a cult owed to the respective persons to whom the images and relics refer. (p. 426)
Canon 1276
It is good and useful suppliantly to invoke the Servants of God reigning together with Christ and to venerate their relics and images; but before the others, all the faithful shall follow the Blessed Virgin Mary with filial devotion. (p. 432)
Canon 1281
§ 1. Important relics or precious images and likewise other relics or images that are honored in some church with a great veneration of the people cannot validly be alienated or perpetually transferred to another church without the permission of the Apostolic See.
§ 2. The important relics of Saints or Blesseds are the body, head, arm, forearm, heart, tongue, hand, leg, or other part of the body that suffered in a martyr, provided it is intact and is not little. (p. 434)
