A lot of people say Catholics worship Mary, and the saints, but they usually only are parroting whatever preacher boy they hitched their wagon to, or they are “smarter” than the Catholics who tell them Whom they actually worship. For some, the main part of Christianity is running around telling people what other Christians actually believe,
Exodus 20:1-6 And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
People can deny till the cows come home that they're not worshiping in spite of what it looks like to others.
The problem is, however, God says not to bow down to or serve those images.
And when the RCC is replete with carved images and people bow down and pray to them, and light candles to them, that can be objectively seen and discerned.
It's breaking some of the Ten Commandments, plain and simple.