The other half of the issue is in a correct understanding of what Catholics believe and practice about “Worship“.
Catholic “going THROUGH” through Mary and the saints is the VERY SAME THING the Jewish peoples in the desert were doing through the brass-serpent…
they were praying THROUGH IT to God, for their physical salvation. Similarly, Catholics pray THROUGH Mary and the Saints for our SPIRITUAL salvation. God NOT Mary or the Saints is the end- goal or purpose of these prayers of “intersession.” Because Mary and the Saints actually ADD their own prayers on-top of ours; thus increasing their effectiveness. … This will be covered in greater detail when we discuss “prayers.”
Our Second Topic is Constantine and his influence of world religions, especially the Catholic Church.
ALL of this information regarding Constantine comes from a NON-Catholic [maybe even anti-catholic source… From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia …A NOTABLY-UN-CATHOLIC SITE.
QUOTE Begins.. “not until Constantine conquered the entire “known world” in the mid forth Century, that he permitted “free practice of religions.” Not only Catholism, influenced by his mother who was a staunch catholic; but from a pragmatic-governance perspective.
Because he had such a large territory to govern and control; Constantine understood the reality of not getting involved in other peoples religions would allow him to govern the many various countries and faiths, with FAR less difficulties to him and Rome. Constantine himself was a Pagan [at this time] who worshiped many false gods.
Constantine is perhaps best known for being the first Christian Roman emperor;
his reign was certainly a turning point for the Church. In February 313, Constantine met with Licinius in Milan where they developed the Edict of Milan. The edict stated that Christians should be allowed to follow the faith of their choosing.[ This removed penalties for professing Christianity (under which many had been martyred in previous persecutions of Christians) and returned confiscated Church property.
The edict did not only protect Christians from religious persecution, but all religions, allowing anyone to worship whichever deity they chose.
A similar edict had been issued in 311 by Galerius, then senior emperor of the Tetrarchy; Galerius' edict granted Christians the right to practice their religion but did not restore any property to them.
The Edict of Milan included several clauses which stated that all confiscated churches would be returned as well as other provisions for previously persecuted Christians.
Scholars debate whether Constantine adopted his mother St. Helena's Christianity in his youth, or whether he adopted it gradually over the course of his life. Constantine would retain the title of pontifex maximus until his death, a title emperors bore as heads of the pagan priesthood, as would his Christian successors on to Gratian (r. 375–83).
According to Christian writers, Constantine was over 40 when he finally declared himself a Christian, writing to Christians to make clear that he believed he owed his successes to the protection of the Christian High God alone.
Throughout his rule, Constantine supported the Church financially, built basilicas, granted privileges to clergy (e.g. exemption from certain taxes), promoted Christians to high office, and returned property confiscated during the Diocletianic persecution. His most famous building projects include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Old Saint Peter's Basilica.
Constantine did not patronize Christianity alone, however.
After gaining victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312), a triumphal arch—the Arch of Constantine—was built (315) to celebrate it; the arch is decorated with images of Victoria and sacrifices to gods like Apollo, Diana, or Hercules, but contains no Christian symbolism.
In 321, Constantine instructed that Christians and non-Christians should be united in observing the venerable day of the sun,
referencing the esoteric eastern sun-worship which Aurelian had helped introduce, and his coinage still carried the symbols of the sun cult until 324.
Even after the pagan gods had disappeared from the coinage,
Christian symbols appeared only as Constantine's personal attributes:
the chi rho between his hands or on his labarum, but never on the coin itself. Even when Constantine dedicated the new capital of Constantinople, which became the seat of Byzantine Christianity for a millennium, he did so wearing the Apollonian sun-rayed Diadem.
The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the emperor as having some influence within the religious discussions going on within the Catholic Church of that time,
[a religious faction that denied the Divinity of Christ]
Constantine himself disliked the risks to societal stability that religious disputes and controversies brought with them, preferring where possible to establish an orthodoxy.
The emperor saw it as his duty to ensure that God was properly worshiped in his empire, and that what proper worship consisted would be determined by the Church.
In 316, Constantine acted as a judge in a North African dispute concerning the validity of Donatism.
After deciding against the Donatists [heretics] ,
Constantine led an army of Christians against the Donatist Christians.
After 300 years of pacifism, this was the first intra-Christian persecution.
More significantly, in 325 he summoned the Council of Nicaea, effectively the first Ecumenical Council (unless the Council of Jerusalem is so classified).
[It’s NOT]
Constantine also enforced the prohibition of the First Council of Nicaea against celebrating the Lord's Supper on the day before the Jewish Passover (14 Nisan) (see Quartodecimanism and Easter controversy).
Churches were seized and many were exiled. Yet the Donatist heresy did not disappear until the Moslem invasion of Africa in the seventh century.”
Constantine made new laws regarding the Jews.
In 331, Constantine commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople. Athanasius (Apol. Const. 4) recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for Constans. Little else is known. It has been speculated that this may have provided motivation for canon lists, and that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta and Codex Alexandrinus, these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles.
Christian Emperorship: Enforcement of Church policy
The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the Christian Emperor in the Church. Emperors considered themselves responsible to God for the spiritual health of their subjects, and thus they had a duty to maintain orthodoxy.
The emperor did not decide doctrine —
The emperor ensured that God was properly worshiped in his empire;
what proper worship (orthodoxy) and doctrine (dogma) consisted of was for the Church to determine.
Constantine himself was baptized into Christianity just before his death in May 337 by his distant relative Arianian Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia.
During Eusebius of Nicomedia's time in the Imperial court, the Eastern court and the major positions in the Eastern Church were held by Arians or Arian sympathizers.
With the exception of a short period of eclipse, Eusebius enjoyed the complete confidence both of Constantine and Constantius II and was the tutor of the later Emperor Julian the Apostate.
After Constantine's death, his son and successor Constantius II was an Arian, as was the later Emperor Valens.
Constantine's position on the religions traditionally practiced in Rome evolved during his reign.
by the end of his reign,
he had begun to order the pillaging and tearing down of Roman temples
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