Dear Marie:

emm, the Enemy must not like me answering this question. I had it all typed out and ready to submit when it just disappeared.

So, let me do this again....

An idol by definition is the worship of an object as a false god. This worshiping the true God, that is, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, cannot be idol worship because He is the True God.

It is possible for people to worship the True God but behave superstitiously, such as when Catholics bury a St. Joseph statue in the back yard to sell a house. Sometimes people think magically about sacramentals such as a blessed medal, a rosary, or holy water thinking that there is power in those objects themselves. But all that is ancillary to the actual worship of God.

If a person was to worship a picture or statue of Jesus, that would be worshiping an idol (an image of Jesus instead of Jesus Himself), but Catholics do not do that.

Thus, unless you have some specific behavior in mind that I can comment upon, the answer is the an idol is an object that is worshiped as god; this is a false god. The True God cannot be an idol, because He is a True God.

God bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary