Quote from Jimmy Akin:
Now, before we go any further, let me issue THE BIG RED DISCLAIMER: I am not a fan of the Harry Potter novels. In order to be able to comment apologetically on the Harry Potter phenomenon, I read the first novel and watched the first two movies. I was not at all impressed with them as literature, and I recognize that they can have a harmful spiritual effect on some readers, especially among the young. I also recognize that they are not an apologia for paganism and that a reader who is secure in his faith will not be magically turned into a neo-pagan by reading them.
[My underline, above]
jimmyakin.org/2005/07/pre16_on_harry_.html
So if you are secure in your faith, you can read these books. Leaving aside all the people who have no faith to defend themselves against demonic attack or their own evil impulses, how many Catholics know their faith today?
The monsignor, now an official of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, said the primary focus of parents and teachers he has spoken with about the books is how enthusiastic children are about reading them.
On a moral level, he said, the books “pit good against evil, and good always wins.”
“The people who complain about Harry Potter are the same people who complain about priests, bishops and catechists watering down church teaching about the devil and evil,” he said.
In J.K. Rowling’s books, he said, “Harry is the only one not afraid to name Voldemort – whom the others all refer to as ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.’ Because he names evil, he is not afraid of it,” but can confront it.
Msgr. Fleetwood said the most appropriate way to judge Harry Potter is not on the basis of theology, but according to the criteria of children’s literature and whether children will read the books willingly.
catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0504069.htm
So, the important thing is that children will read these books? That’s sad.
Yes, I would say, people are complaining about the lack of emphasis on teaching people about how easy it is to go to Hell. Vatican II seems to have banished the Devil forever. Quite a feat.
Here’s a idea for you. The angels of Hell aren’t going to appear to you with horns and offer you temptation direct. They won’t shout in your ear to commit sin. They just work on your evil, prideful tendencies and try to magnify them.
You may not realise anything is wrong until, by the grace of God, you realise you are doing things which would make your grandparents ashamed or which your childhood self would find horrid.
We are surrounded by stimuli of all kinds. Modern culture is full of sex, pride and violence. Are you going to let these sense impressions nestle, as memory, in your subconscious? Do you really think you are the master of your heart? Even modern psychiatrists say no.
Fr. Gabriele Amorth is an important exorcist.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_Amorth
He is not a crank. The problem for exorcists today is to do their job when a large section of the Church simple doesn’t believe in the Devil any more. It is not united on this issue, which is still a fact of doctrine, as far as I know.
Ha, it’s kind of funny that occultists believe in demons and try to use them but sections of the Church don’t think there’s a need to evict them from Her suffering children.