[Mrs. Don-o]

There is a legitimate distinction, though, between "venerate" and "adore." You could say (just cut-and-pasting these quotes at random)

• "the soldier venerated his wife's love-letter with a kiss"
  
• Glenn Beck said he venerates "our sacred American heroes and ideas"
  
• The Tea Partiers venerate those who have been successful by their own efforts, like Thomas Edison..."
  
• the delicacy of his music derives from the past masters he venerates—Casals and Horowitz were his mentors"

Eetcetera. Its general meaning is to honor as a valued person, not to adore as the Supreme Being.

The Commandment "Honor thy father and thy mother" encourages veneration in this sense --- not in the sense of ancestor-worship.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

I gave you the dictionary definitions...and they go back several hundred years. The ‘veneration’ of Mary is not a new thing, and the definitions of old would apply to that.