I typically go to the Greek and also see where else that word is used in scripture.
2 Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers (koinónos) of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
koinónos - Definition: a sharer, partner, companion.
2844 koinōnós (a masculine noun/substantival adjective) – properly, a participant who mutually belongs and shares fellowship; a "joint-participant."
And then other places that word is foung.
2 Corinthians 8:23 Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner (koinónos) and fellowhelper concerning you: or our brethren be inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ.
Philemon 1:17 If thou count me therefore a partner (koinónos), receive him as myself.
When we are a partner of someone we don’t become that person or even take that persons identity or likeness.
>>Trust me, Catholics go with St Peter on this.<<
Not by the looks of it. What Peter said was not what Catholics believe it seems to me. If Catholics believed what Peter actually said they wouldn’t say that they become gods.
I think it might be helpful to bring to mind the difference between "person" and "nature." Jesus Christ is a divine Person who has two natures: divine and human.
A human person (like you or me) could never be, and will never be, a divine Person. IN that sense, we are never "divinized," we never become "gods" either in the Mormon sense of plural gods (polytheism) or in the Brahmin sense of being merged into God so that one's own human personhood simply dissolves.
Those two senses (polytheism or personal annihilation) are errors --- I think we'd both agree on that. Those senses are not St. Peter's meaning, and are not the Catholic meaning.
Bu when you look at what Peter said, precisely, he said we are "partakers (koinónos) of the divine nature" not of the divine Personhood.
"Person" answers the question "WHO is that?"
"Nature" answers the question "WHAT is that?" Or, functionally, "What can it do? hat is it capable of?"
It seems to me --- and metaphysics isn't my bag, so I'm kind of feeling my way here --- that if we are partakers in His divine nature, we become sharers or partners in what He does, and we have a relationship (not an identity, a relationship) with His incomparably high and infinitely majestic Person.
Any doctrine of sharing the divine nature, I think, would have to observe these distinctions. If any of the great Catholic teachers like Saint Irenaeus or Clement of Alexandria speak of being "in the end, gods" they must be understood in this sense: that we are called to be partakers in the Divine nature, not as Divine Persons, of who there are only Three: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.