A Word on Images

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Two questions that obviously must be kept apart are those of the use of
sacred images and of the reverence paid to them. That Christians from the very
beginning adorned their catacombs with paintings of Christ, of the saints, of scenes from the Bible and allegorical groups is too
obvious and too well known for it to be necessary to insist upon
the fact. The catacombs
are the cradle of all Christian art.

And, at the same link, from the Council of Trent:

[The holy Synod commands] that images of Christ, the Virgin Mother of God, and other saints are to be held and kept especially in churches, that due honour and reverence (debitum honorem et venerationem) are to be paid to them, not that any divinity or power is thought to be in them for the sake of which they may be worshipped, or that anything can be asked of them, or that any trust may be put in images, as was done by the heathen who put their trust in their idols [Ps. cxxxiv, 15 sqq.], but because the honour shown to them is referred to the prototypes which they represent, so that by kissing, uncovering to, kneeling before images we adore Christ and honour the saints whose likeness they bear (Denzinger, no. 986).