During the April 2020 General Conference, the Church issued a new official logo:
Sady, many misinformed Protestants (mainly Fundamentalists) have been belly-aching about it on facebook, stating it violates the second commandment. The problem is that the commandment is not about images/icons per se, but the veneration thereof. Furthermore, the Bible itself allows for images as long as they are not venerated, and early Christians, too, shared this view (many allowed for images of Jesus for didactic purposes [Tertullian] while always rejecting veneration of the images and the prototype in heaven thereof). The second commandment is not violated by the new logo and other artwork of the Church (though the defined dogmatic teachings of Catholicism are in violation thereof).
For articles discussing such issues, including a thorough refutation of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox dogmas relating to the veneration of icons and the apologetic that, ultimately, the prototype in heaven they represent receives the veneration, see:
Latter-day Saints and Religious Images
Answering a Catholic Apologist on the Veneration of Images
Sady, many misinformed Protestants (mainly Fundamentalists) have been belly-aching about it on facebook, stating it violates the second commandment. The problem is that the commandment is not about images/icons per se, but the veneration thereof. Furthermore, the Bible itself allows for images as long as they are not venerated, and early Christians, too, shared this view (many allowed for images of Jesus for didactic purposes [Tertullian] while always rejecting veneration of the images and the prototype in heaven thereof). The second commandment is not violated by the new logo and other artwork of the Church (though the defined dogmatic teachings of Catholicism are in violation thereof).
For articles discussing such issues, including a thorough refutation of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox dogmas relating to the veneration of icons and the apologetic that, ultimately, the prototype in heaven they represent receives the veneration, see:
Latter-day Saints and Religious Images
Answering a Catholic Apologist on the Veneration of Images
Douglas Beaumont and the Real Issues About the Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) Teachings on the Veneration of Icons/Images
The Early Christian Use of the Staurogram in Manuscripts: A Visual Reference to Christ's Crucifixion?
Will Durant on the Development of the Veneration of Images
Brian E. Daley on Eusebius' and Epiphanius' Opposition to the Veneration of Images
Athenagoras vs. Second Nicea and Trent on the Veneration of Images and the Persons they Represent
Richard Price on the Late Origin of Icon/Image Veneration
Examples of Second Nicea Affirming the Veneration of Images/Icons, not the Heavenly Prototypes Merely
The Early Christian Use of the Staurogram in Manuscripts: A Visual Reference to Christ's Crucifixion?
Robert Bellarmine Affirming the Veneration of Images, not the Heavenly Prototype Merely; cf. Robert Bellarmine on Relics and Images in An Ample
Declaration of the Christian Doctrine
Sister Lucia (Fatima Seer): Images of Jesus, Mary, and the Saints to Receive a Form of Veneration, not the Heavenly Prototypes Merely cf. Jesus Commanding the Veneration of His Image (not Merely Person) in the Writings of Roman Catholic Saint Maria Faustyna Kowalska (1905-1938)
The 1917 Code of Canon Law and the Veneration of Images (cf. Icon Veneration as Taught by the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches; Icon Veneration as Taught by the 1983 Code of Canon Law)
Will Durant on the Development of the Veneration of Images
Brian E. Daley on Eusebius' and Epiphanius' Opposition to the Veneration of Images
Athenagoras vs. Second Nicea and Trent on the Veneration of Images and the Persons they Represent
Richard Price on the Late Origin of Icon/Image Veneration
Examples of Second Nicea Affirming the Veneration of Images/Icons, not the Heavenly Prototypes Merely
Daryl Chase, "Use of Images by Christians"
The Justifications Given for Opposition to Venerating Images given at the Iconoclastic Council of Constantinople (AD 754)
The Justifications Given for Opposition to Venerating Images given at the Iconoclastic Council of Constantinople (AD 754)
The Charge of Nestorianism Against Iconodulia by Iconoclasts in the 8th Century (cf. Jaś Elsner on the Charge ofNestorianism against Iconodulia at the Council of Hiereia (754))
Robin M. Jensen (RC): Appealing to the Incarnation as a Faulty Apologetic to Support Icon Veneration
Notes from Ernst Kitzinger, “The Cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm," (1954); cf. Ernst Kitzinger on the Lack of Evidence of the Veneration of Images in the Opening Centuries of Christianity
Notes on Wisdom of Solomon
14:8-21 and Iconodulia
Icon Veneration in Eastern Orthodox Catechisms and The Synodikon of Orthodoxy
Pope Gregory III's Excommunication of Those Who Oppose Icon Veneration (731 AD)
Reiner Sörries Early Christian Attitudes Towards Images in The Encyclopedia of Christianity
Thomas Aquinas on the Worship of the Cross of Christ in Summa Theologica III.25,4
See also
Eric D. Svendsen, In the Image of God: A Dialogue With a Roman Catholic Apologist on the Veneration of Images (a thorough response to Robert Sungenis on the overwhelming early Christian evidence against the later defined RC/EO dogma). See also:
John B. Carpenter, Answering Eastern Orthodox Apologists regarding Icons (cf. John B. Carpenter, "The Early Church on the Aniconic Spectrum, WJM 83 [2021]: 35-47)
Idem, The Early Church on the Aniconic Spectrum
Karl Joseph Von Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church From the Original Documents, vol. 5: A.D. 626 to the Close of the of the Second Council of Nicea, A.D. 787
Lynn Martin, Responding to Orthodox Arguments for Icons
As some RC/EO apologists tie veneration of images to the veneration of the consecrated Host, be sure to check out the following essays examining the purported biblical and patristic evidence for the Mass as propitiatory sacrifice and Transubstantiation:
Responses to Robert Sungenis, Not By Bread Alone (2000/2009)
Karl Joseph Von Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church From the Original Documents, vol. 5: A.D. 626 to the Close of the of the Second Council of Nicea, A.D. 787
Lynn Martin, Responding to Orthodox Arguments for Icons
As some RC/EO apologists tie veneration of images to the veneration of the consecrated Host, be sure to check out the following essays examining the purported biblical and patristic evidence for the Mass as propitiatory sacrifice and Transubstantiation:
Responses to Robert Sungenis, Not By Bread Alone (2000/2009)
On my youtube channel, I have a podcast episode on the case against icon/image veneration being apostolic in origin:
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