Evil Harry Potter

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It was The Guardian. They have no compunction that about making people of faith look foolish.

Has it occurred to anyone there may be more to this story? The principle stated,

“We really don’t get into censorship in such selections other than making sure that what we put in our school libraries are age-appropriate materials for our classrooms.”

I do not know what grades they go down to, but maybe they have low enough grades to make this book inappropriate for the age of children they teach. Also, if some parents object, and there are other materials equally suited that no parent objects to, why not remove it. It is not like the books were banned. The simply aren’t supplying them through their library.
 
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pnewton said:
It was The Guardian. They have no compunction that about making people of faith look foolish.
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True. The Guardian does it all the time, subject to the restriction that “people of faith” means “people of the Christian faith.” The Guardian doesn’t go after people of the Muslim faith.

In this case, however, it wasn’t The Guardian making people of faith look foolish. It was people of faith making themselves look foolish.
 
Capta(name removed by moderator)rudeman said:
“All practices of magic or sorcery , by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others…”

There is no taming of occult powers in the books, not even attempts. The gift of wizardry is a gift obtained at birth. Unless you’re telling me that little Harry consorted with demons, or little Ron attempted to channel Satan, the wizardry in the books is not the wizardry banned by the Church. They never advocate for naturalistic rituals or any other occult practices, either. It’s clear that the magic is a property (some may say God-given gift) that is inherent in the self, like sharp vision or faster reaction times or more natural mental acuity. Drawing the comparison between teaching gifted kids how to use their powers for good AS A PLOT DEVICE and actual ungodly witchcraft makes us look like crazy cultists.
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Arggghhhh.
You asked a question and I provided a resource to help you, without even commenting, and now I have taken a position in your mind?
 
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Probably that kids are smart enough to know that magic doesn’t exist.
 
Sorry, I responded to you without meaning to accuse you of taking sides. I realize it easily came across that way.
 
Thomasbradley312 said:
Shakespeare was a Catholic and most of his plays allude to that though most people aren’t aware. Joseph Pearce has some great talks on how he was a Catholic and his writings are proof of it.
And I don’t understand your allusion to past trends. Harry Potter isn’t new for one, 15 years ago you could say that.
And are you advocating that because ouija boards were once popular with kids it thus should have been allowed in schools?
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Shakespeare was likely a closet Catholic, of course. Nonetheless, there have been people who were convinced that Macbeth contains real spells. Which is laughable for a lot of reasons.

Some would argue that it is possible to inadvertently open oneself up to the demonic. I hear this sometimes in relation to yoga - that putting one’s body in the poses somehow lets the bad juju in regardless of whether one intends to do so or not. Same with using ouija boards (which certainly did not start out merely being marketed as a game).

Is this your belief - that even if JK Rowlings and everyone’s intent is innocent, somehow there is real evil lurking in them thar Harry Potters?

Or are you suggesting that JK Rowling did intend to put real spells in her books and/or really glorify or glamourise witchcraft? She is very open about being a practicing Christian, and so it seems unlikely that she would intentionally mess around or promote the occult.

For the record, I wouldn’t want ouija boards in schools any more than I would want Angry Birds or Monopoly or Hungry Hungry Hippo. Doesn’t mean any of them are necessarily and irredeemably demonic.
 
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2117 All practices of magic or sorcery , by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.

Aside from the demonic and occult aspects of the books, the series itself it cultish. They can serve as dark distractions for students. I wouldn’t be surprised if many Catholic school students could name all the Harry Potter characters and detail the plot of the series from memory, but couldn’t name an equal amount of the Saints or give a very brief summary of salvation history. But the much more worrisome aspect is opening a path for the Satanic into young souls. Hopefully, more Catholic schools will follow suit and banish this and other serpentine books from their halls.

Most of Western civilization idolizes youth and children; they must always be affirmed, rarely corrected, and constantly entertained. There is too much playing, and not enough praying. Many folks see the exorcism of these books as superfluous or superstitious, but a Catholic school’s mission is to make students holy, not to indulge in their entertainment wishes.
 
FYI - it wasn’t the priest that made this national (international) news. It was one or more parents that put this into the local news and because it dealt with HP and an international author, the story went viral.
 
Wozza said:
Of course it’s their right. But is it a sensible decision? Surely this does nothing to promote the faith. Rather the opposite.
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The modern world’s rejection of the real supernatural world (in favor of made up supernatural worlds of super heroes, vampires, dragons, wizards, and zombies, etc.) doesn’t mean the real supernatural world which includes demons and people’s ability to be drawn into the occult doesn’t exist.

The attempt to make those who understand the reality of the supernatural and occult look like ignorant rubes is ironic. Protecting children from the occult is a real thing.

I make no pronouncements on HP, and haven’t read any of the books. But if a Catholic school and priest deems them unacceptable, they are taking the cautious approach and prefer these books not be in their library.
 
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This is happening in my diocese and there are a few people I personally know that are ranting and kvetching about this situation. The former pastor of the parish was a rather beloved priest. He also did some rather disobedient stuff and managed to tick-off 2 bishops.

Many parents/school alumni are pissed off at the new pastor and want to see him gone - not just from the parish but the priesthood! I know this because there are several ‘refugees’ that have arrived at my parish.

This story was MEANT to go viral and serve as an embarrassment for my diocese. The conversations that it sparked here on CA are superfluous.
 
tl; dr

Spells-Shmells
2️⃣©️©️

The books may be popular, but they are not very good literature-wise.

But primarily: I don’t like the morality of the books. Harry Freakin’ Potter consistently lies to the adults who are trying to help him at every turn!
Harry winced as his scar throbbed.

“Harry, is anything wrong?” Dumbledore asked.

“No,” Harry lied.
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Oy-vey
 
Wendy1989 said:
This is happening in my diocese and there are a few people I personally know that are ranting and kvetching about this situation. The former pastor of the parish was a rather beloved priest. He also did some rather disobedient stuff and managed to tick-off 2 bishops.

Many parents/school alumni are pissed off at the new pastor and want to see him gone - not just from the parish but the priesthood! I know this because there are several ‘refugees’ that have arrived at my parish.

This story was MEANT to go viral and serve as an embarrassment for my diocese. The conversations that it sparked here on CA are superfluous.
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Hmm - - it all boils down to parish politics doesn’t it?
So, the point of the article (and this discussion) was to ridicule and shame the pastor.
 
It would be so fake if Harry was “little master perfect.” When and how was he taught good morals? Also, Harry doesn’t have a lot of reason to trust adults considering the abuse and neglect he’s experienced from them,
including Dumbledore will ultimately use Harry too.

I had some vintage Catholic school books and they had children who were little miss and master perfect and I couldn’t stand them. Even the ones who did something naughty, when they got in trouble the punishment was just and the adults, kind. That was not my experience so that “Catholic-verse” was fake, too.
 
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I DON’T have a dog in this fight, just wanted people to see what Father is probably re-acting to…

www.womenofgrace.com

Exorcist: Stay Away From Harry Potter

Even though the Harry Potter series is finished, these wizardry tales remain the most widely-read books among youth. But as this world-renowned exorcist warns, just because they’re popular and everyone’s reading them, doesn’t make them safe.
www.womenofgrace.com www.womenofgrace.com
 
tuscany said:
I DON’T have a dog in this fight, just wanted people to see what Father is probably re-acting to…
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I don’t really have a dog in this fight, either. I’m not a Harry Potter fan. I took my young grandson to see one of the movies and I quite enjoyed it, though it didn’t prompt me to watch any of the others, or even to read any of the books. On the other hand, the fuss about “black magic” and the rest of it reminds me very much of a close parallel back in the mid-twentieth century, around the time of Martin Luther King, Orval Faubus, and the civil rights movement. In one of the Southern states, possibly Alabama but I’m not sure about that, a pressure group succeeded in persuading libraries to withdraw a children’s book in which the characters were rabbits, because the story ended with a white rabbit marrying a black rabbit. “Race mixing is sin” was the slogan with which the successful campaigners expressed their outrage.
 
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Yup. There were some things that he did in the past couple years that I don’t agree with but I wasn’t in his position nor in his parish. I do know that what has been done was for a greater purpose.
 
I sort of see the parallel. In this case, though, race mixing isn’t a sin, whereas engaging in spells and pagan magic could quite possibly be a sin.

HP, however, can’t be taken seriously as engaging in black magic. Banning the HP books because of the witchcraft and wizardry is more akin to banning Huckleberry Finn because children might think it’s o.k. to use the n-word.
 
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