Did the Catholic Church change the Second Commandment?

Did the Catholic Church change the Ten Commandments?

In short--no. People often assert the Catholic Church omits the second commandment which condemns worshipping idols. Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

CHAPTER ONE
"YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND"

ARTICLE 1
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven 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.3

It is written: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve."4
[Taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church]

Note also that Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Orthodox Christians all have different numberings for the 10 commandments (as seen in this wiki article).

Some falsely claim that Catholic bibles omit these commandment however if you read the offical New Latin Vulgate the commandment is there:

Non facies tibi sculptile neque omnem similitudinem eorum, quae sunt in caelo desuper et quae in terra deorsum et quae in aquis sub terra.--Exodus 20:4 of New Vulgate

A commonly used Catholic translation called the New American Bible says:

You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;--Exodus 20:4 NAB

The Douay Rheims Bible, another Catholic translation says:

Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. --Exodus 20:4 DRB

So, yes, the Catechism does include the commandment against making idols, and so do Catholic Bible include this verse.

What is also interesting is that these people that accuse the Catholic Church of changing to "deleting" the 10 commandments typically are not Sabbath keepers either! Yet commandment says to honor/keep the sabbath, I suppose they need to answer why they do not observe this.

Regardless, the Catholic Church does not make idols since we do not adore images or statues. The Bible does speak of making gold statues of the Cherubim in Exodus 25.

Make two cherubim of beaten gold for the two ends of the cover- Exodus 25:18

We see here that God commanding Israelites to MAKE a statue, thus showing God did not see this as a violation of Exodus 20:4, since He would not contradict His own Word!  Futhermore, we can see the temple was decorated with statues in 1 Kings 6:23 and on, which includes CHERUBIM!

“In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olivewood, each ten cubits high”-1 Kings 6:23)

We do make images to aide us in focusing on praying to Jesus or asking the saints to intercede on our behalf, and as well as to honor the saints, which is not giving them worship that is only due to God. I have another article on the intercession of the saints.