Catholics see every single member of the Church  (whether in this earth or in heaven) as a brother and sister. So carrying an image of them is like carrying the picture of your brother, cousin, niece.

Plus add the fact that whatever is portrayed in the image is there to inspire us to lead holy lives. So If I’m being selfish and I open up my wallet and there is the image of Mother Teresa, hopefully I’ll realize I need to be a little more generous, just like she is. 

Now, Zach also asked about a very interesting little “practice” of some catholics…. Burying a little statue of St. Joseph in their backyard as a “prayer” to get the house sold, oh yeah, and they bury it upside down…oookkkeeeyyyy…some places even sell “kits”…wow…

Now, if you are thinking (or screaming) “superstition! Superstition!” I’ll join you. C’mon, say it with me… “superstition! Superstition!”

Its ,simply put,  an act of superstition. In the best case (when the person is sincere in their heart and clearly understands that burying him upside down doesn’t mean a thing but they just do it cuz’ it’s a funny kind of folklore mixed in with prayer) it is popular piety gone nuts. The Church doesn’t really have anything to do with that kind of things.

The Church didn’t create them or mandate them, people just came up with it. Like knocking on wood…or groundhog day…or any other kind of “popular” weird thing that people do… oh! And it’s a very cultural thing…I thinks its an American culture thing…or at least and Anglo-Saxon thing… haven’t seen it anywhere else!

While it is perfectly ok for catholics to ask St. Joseph for his intercession in helping buy or sell a home (finding housing for the holy family being one of his duties as head of the holy family), the idea of burying a statue of him upside down is a “religious” act with no rational basis…something that could be called a “perverse excess of religion.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that "Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion" (CCC 2110). Yep. So don’t do it. Its just plain weird.

Now, you will find good, faithful, orthodox, Jesus-loving catholics and maybe a couple of priests who say its ok, its just like any other request of intercession to the Saints. Well…that’s their call.

The Church hasn’t explicitly condemned this little practice, cuz the guys in the Vatican have some more important things to deal with but the Catechism does have a word or two about being very very careful with “popular piety.” (popular piety can be a very good thing, like processions, and public prayers, and rosaries and novenas but it can also go nuts if unsupervised)The Catechism of the Catholic Church says :

1676 "Pastoral discernment is needed to sustain and support popular piety and, if necessary, to purify and correct the religious sense which underlies these devotions so that the faithful may advance in knowledge of the mystery of Christ. Their exercise is subject to the care and judgment of the bishops and to the general norms of the Church.

So yeah…  not exactly a funky catholic thing…just a funky thing some catholics do…

BTW…if you are catholic and did this and realize you did it with superstition in your heart…errr…call Father and set up an appointment for confession! Eeek!