Well, official Catholic teaching has always been (and I mean, going back to first 3 centuries, and onwards), that God alone is to be worshiped. His creatures in heaven may be venerated, which basically means held in esteem, asked for intercessory prayer, etc., but never ever worshipped. Anyone who taught you otherwise was misrepresenting Catholic teaching, and on a fundamental and very serious matter. I do understand your point about guilt, but would say... guilt is like pain -- it's good if it is telling us legitimately something is wrong (morally speaking), but there is a fix for it -- confirm whether the guilt is coming from actual sin, and if it is, stop it, confess it, and "sin no more" as Jesus put it... Peace.

Well, official Catholic teaching has always been (and I mean, going back to first 3 centuries, and onwards), that God alone is to be worshiped. His creatures in heaven may be venerated, which basically means held in esteem, asked for intercessory prayer, etc., but never ever worshiped. Anyone who taught you otherwise was misrepresenting Catholic teaching, and on a fundamental and very serious matter. I do understand your point about guilt, but would say... guilt is like pain -- it's good if it is telling us legitimately something is wrong (morally speaking), but there is a fix for it -- confirm whether the guilt is coming from actual sin, and if it is, stop it, confess it, and "sin no more" as Jesus put it... Peace.