We are to follow them as they follow Christ. To follow them and not to worship them, carry them around in a high chair, kiss their feet, etc.
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Catechism of the Catholic Church signed off by the Pope
2113 Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon." Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast" refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.
2114 Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God."
2096 Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful Love. "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve,"
Catholics agree completely with Acts 10:25-26, when rightly understood. No mere human being is to receive latria; not the pope, not the saints in heaven, . Our supreme worship belongs to the Blessed Trinity alone!
With that in mind let us now turn our attention to a disciple of the Apostle John, St. Ignatius of Antioch. St. Ignatius was in prison, on the road to martyrdom, when he wrote letters to seven different churches (98-118 AD). The
importance of his writings cannot be overestimated, as he was a disciple of an Apostle as well as being around during the Churchs formative years appointed as the second bishop of Antioch around 69 AD.
It is interesting to note the teachings of St. Ignatius regarding the episcopate. He writes "all of you are to follow the bishop as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbytery as the apostles. Respect the deacons as the command of God. Apart from the bishop no one is to do anything pertaining to the church. A valid Eucharist is to be defined as one celebrated by the bishop or by a representative of his... He who honors the bishop has been honored by God; he who does anything without the bishops knowledge worships the devil." (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8,9 as quoted in The Apostolic Fathers edited by Jack N. Sparks pg. 112-113)
St. Paul gives much the same teaching in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 when he writes "We ask you, brothers, to respect those who are laboring among you and who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you, and to show esteem for them with
special love on account of their work. Be at peace among yourselves."
As to the western practice, ring kissing might look strange today but it grew out of ancient custom, you used to have to kiss the bishops foot! That used to be the way you showed respect to superior officers like emperors or kings, and, back in the fourth or fifth century the emperors themselves kissed the Popes foot as a sign of deference to spiritual authority. The church having out lived these cultures changed this practice about the year 1600, as it no longer had a parallel in civil ceremony. The ring came into the ceremony because its the symbol of an unchangeable state of life. That is why Roman citizens had the right to wear one, and why youre supposed to wear one after you get married. Since at least the year 610, when Boniface IV made it definite, the ring has been the primary symbol of the bishops office. Kissing the ring is a way of showing deference to the office, rather than to the man.
It is because of the great love the church has for her Lord that she respects and honors His ambassadors on earth (2 Cor 5:20, Eph 6:20). We honor them because they represent Christ in both the figurative and literal sense. Figuratively they represent him in their capacity of teachers and shepherds. Literally they represent Him when they offer the sacrifice of the Mass (or Liturgy) in the person of Christ, en persona Christi.
