[Iscool]

The language of the Catholic Church is Latin which preceded English by some 2,000 years. It doesn’t matter what Daniel Webster thinks it means, only what the Catholic Church says it means. I believe the Latin term is “dulia” which specifically means reverence to saints and angels and definitely NOT worship.

But why then does you religion say it means 'venerate', which is another word for worship and deify???

[grey_whiskers]

The Latin word came first, then English.

Hint: just as in science, where there are specialized meanings for words otherwise in common use, so too in theology.

[Freeborn]

Don’t assume I am Catholic, I studied Latin in college and know the original meaning of dulia. It’s generally good advice whether discussing Law, Science, Theology, or History to not imprint the limitations of English on ideas and definitions that were settled hundreds of years before there was an English language.