Dear George,

I'm glad I was able to clarify the difference between veneration and worship for you. However, there is another distinction that needs to be made. Your question asks for "biblical evidence that allows...".

It is important to note that the Church does not go by sola scriptura (the bible alone), but rather the bible sprung forth from the Tradition of the Church. When allowing things to take place, the Church never contradicts Sacred Scripture but everything is not always explicitly in the bible that is allowed or followed by the Church.

For example, where in the bible does it say that a screen is mandatory for the confessional?

The Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts provided to the norm of confession in its 16 June 1998 decree. In this decree, the Holy See preserves the right of the priest to require confession behind a screen.

So the question, "where is that in the bible" is flawed because, the canon of the bible (the books in it) is not in the bible itself, but came through the Tradition of the Church.

It is clearly in our Tradition that even in the earliest times in the Church, Christians adorned their catacombs with images of Christ, scenes from the bible, and of the cross. As I mentioned in my last post, Tertullian even mentions our early Church as being "worshippers of the cross". To be clear, this was all happening before the bible in its modern form was put together (even before some of the books may have been written!). 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2132) states: "The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, “the honour rendered to an image passes to its prototype,” and “whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it.” The honour paid to sacred images is a “respectful veneration,” not the adoration due to God alone: Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is".

God bless,

Mr. Mathew