Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels - Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online

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I get the feeling sometimes the opinion of some people is either black or white, that reading Harry Potter is a replacement for reading the Bible and that if you happen to like the Harry Potter stories it’s akin to accepting the devil.

I don’t think the author or publishers intend Harry Potter fans to abandon their Christian faiths, (possibly quite the opposite?) Or also for some fans to embrace the HP stories as a form of religion. My children and I have the good sense to recognize the difference between fantasy and reality, and our faith in God is not threatened by the dark and sinister aspects of the HP stories. In my opinion those who attack, or overly embrace the HP stories are caught up in superstition themselves. If entertainment always had to adhear to strict “Christian” standards, it would be bland and boring to be sure.

Harry Potter is a story, that’s all, and if it turns some people into witches then they’re stupid. 😃 Probably the disturbing thing about Harry Potter is it’s all about making money, and even I bought into it.
 
Well, I confess to not having read the books, but I have seen the movies. I enjoyed them, and they seem to be fairly classic good-vs-evil themes. My teenagers have read the books, and they appear undamaged.

When I was their ages, I read *The Lord of the Rings *trilogy, *The Chronicles of Narnia *series, *Sword of Shannara, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, *etc. I don’t see a great difference between the Potter series and those series.

Pax,
Robert
 
estesbob said:
Why?

Can you give us a link? Has he read the books?
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estesbob goggle Fr Gabriel Amorth, you will find lots of material on him. I remember reading something he said about Harry Potter in Zenit news but I am sorry I dont remember the date.
I have read both of his book, “An Exorcist Tell His Story” and a second book, “An Exorcist Tells More Stories” you should try and read them, they are enlightening.
GraceAngel.
 
cathnews.com/news/201/17.php

Here’s a link from the official exorcist.

I personally read 6 books and saw 4 movies before I turned away. One day I was just reading the Bible and suddenly I came to this verse: Thou shalt not suffer a whitch to live. I immediately was shocked by how far I had fallen into Harry Potter. From that day forth I haven’t touched the books or movies. It’s magic! God clearly says magic is wrong.

Let’s at least be honest and not convince ourselves that it’s “only a book.”
 
Isn’t J.K. Rowling a witch? From the beginning I have seen the books as calling children to the witch religion. When my son was younger I looked into one of he books and read a section where the kids in the book had to bury screaming plants that looked like babies. The children in the book needed to cover their ears while they buried the babies. It was an interesting view of how a witch would want kids and teens to approach abortion.

Are there any organizations called Witches For Life?
 
I don’t believe Rowling is a witch. I think that was made up. And the mandragora plants being potted (not buried) was just a piece of mythology from ancient lore. Many video games have screaming madrakes.

I’m not defending Harry Potter, but I don’t like false arguments.
 
doodleduh said:
cathnews.com/news/201/17.php

Here’s a link from the official exorcist.

I personally read 6 books and saw 4 movies before I turned away. One day I was just reading the Bible and suddenly I came to this verse: Thou shalt not suffer a whitch to live. I immediately was shocked by how far I had fallen into Harry Potter. From that day forth I haven’t touched the books or movies. It’s magic! God clearly says magic is wrong.

Let’s at least be honest and not convince ourselves that it’s “only a book.”
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Actually it is only a book. If you have come to believe God told you the boks are wring thats fine but please dont try and tell the rest of us there is something wrong with the books or with us reading them
 
But how can you justify people casting spells? Can you justify reading a romance novel about homosexuals raping little boys?
 
I have always enjoyed science fiction, fantasy literature, the classics, mythology, etc. I’ve read all the HP books. I enjoyed the first one way back in 1999 or so, read the second which was not I thought as good as the first but still interesting enough; read the third which I thought was very good. Then came the fourth. This was where I thought the series began to get out of hand–I thought JK had far too many subplots, her difficulties with numbers, dates, keeping track of what she had already written etc. were problematic. Then along came “CAPSLOCK” (book 5) which, having just gotten two of three of my offspring through the dreaded adolescent angst, was more difficult for me to read for that reason as well as for what almost seemed an egregious killing of Sirius --an event for which Harry bore more responsibility than I ever feel was acknowledged in the books. Then book 6 with still more sudden introductions of people, SS of all people (in pure-blood Slytherin) revealed as ‘half blood prince’, the whole Dumbledore mystery. Finally book 7 not only does not succeed in typing up many loose ends, it leaves more that came up in that book alone, as well as those before.

I know that for some it will seem as though I’ve read “different stories”. I am not against them as books, I am not against them as being ‘evil’; for me, personally, I find them unsatisfactory as great, or even ‘good’ literature, taken as a whole.

I think what really started me thinking and puzzling was the way in which the ‘good’ --i.e., the authority figures, the rule abiders, the conscientious, studious people–were presented poorly unless they ‘supported’ Harry. Hermione, for example, never was treated well until she LIED to her teachers to ‘save’ Harry and Ron from punishment. In each succeeding book she moved more and more away from following rules and further and further into going against them.

And the best-liked characters, like the twins, were poorly behaved slackers, mean spirited bullies who, because they played sports and were ‘amusing’, were idolized. . .while the quiet brother Percy was named (by them) as pompous and stuck up. Amazingly enough, while Percy even outdoes Hermione academically, he never uses his powers the way the twins do, or even retaliates against them. Yet HE is portrayed as stuffy and ambitious --obviously cardinal sins in the Weasley family who seem to be cheerful slackers.

All through the books the main thread seems to be “The end justifies the means”. . .and in book 7 we have the revelation that this is exactly how and why Dumbledore acted as he did --the end, the death of Voldemort, was considered so important that the means to that end–involving the death of Harry–was something Dumbledore accepted. Further, Dumbledore’s own death also embodied that thought. . . It was to make Snape appear ‘loyal’ to Voldemort, it kept Dumbledore from a lingering painful death otherwise. Morally, these ‘ends’ may be a desired good–but the means to them were emphatically not good.

So bring on the good wizards like Gandalf. Even bring on the flawed wizards from Earthsea who actually have to deal with real consequences, not ‘fairy tale’ happy endings. But for me, the whole Harry Potter saga is one that ‘could have been’ much greater. If it had indeed truly reflected Christian teachings and not simply attempted to make a few allegories and allusions and use of relativity and situational ethics and portray it as ‘Christian’ values, no doubt with good intentions and sincerity of belief–it could have stood the test of time and been not just a popular saga, but an authentically great one as well.
 
doodleduh said:
I don’t believe Rowling is a witch. I think that was made up. And the mandragora plants being potted (not buried) was just a piece of mythology from ancient lore. Many video games have screaming madrakes.

I’m not defending Harry Potter, but I don’t like false arguments.
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I don’t know about the witch part, but where is the false argument of seeing an analogy to abortion in putting dirt around screaming babies with ear muffs on so you couldn’t hear them. Maybe the lore had to do with child scrifice. Abortion is today’s child sacrifice to Satan (old flat head), the hater of all souls.
 
No, I’m not defending harry potter or abortion. Really, I’m not. I hate abortion and Harry, but I was simply saying that there’s no reason to suggest it was an analogy. They were planting them because they needed to be planted to survive.

Although, I just remembered, they were going to be harvested for juice tha could cure paralysis. I guess that “could” mean some sort of stem cell research thing, but…
 
doodleduh said:
But how can you justify people casting spells? Can you justify reading a romance novel about homosexuals raping little boys?
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Oh my-this thread has really sunk into the absurd now. Harry Potter is akin to raping lillte boys? What a twisted outlook on life you have.
 
estesbob said:
Oh my-this thread has really sunk into the absurd now. Harry Potter is akin to raping lillte boys? What a twisted outlook on life you have.
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A spell sounds like a rape of prayer to me, but I’m also seeing an abortion analogy that turned out to look more like stem cell research.

I’m sorry, I’m a witch bigot. No… I’m not sorry, but I’ll say a prayer for them tonight to try and compensate.
 
Estebob, you’re just trying to justify reading the books. A sin is a sin, no matter how it’s portrayed.
 
doodleduh said:
But how can you justify people casting spells? Can you justify reading a romance novel about homosexuals raping little boys?
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So, are you against people reading The Lord of the Rings? Not the homosexual part…the spell casting. 😛
 
I have read all of the Harry Potter books. I liked them. I think J.K. Rowling is a great author. Her books got many, many children (and adults!) to read- I would admire her for that, even if I didn’t like the books. It is fantasy. I can distinguish fantasy from reality just fine. I have to wonder if those who are so critical of the books have actually read them. They aren’t laced with sex. They are original. Each book is several hundred pages long- yet kids and young adults (who may fight reading even a short story) read them like crazy. That is very hard to do in our culture today! I am very grateful to her for that.
 
doodleduh said:
Estebob, you’re just trying to justify reading the books. A sin is a sin, no matter how it’s portrayed.
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First you need to establish that reading the Harry Potter books is definitely a sin. I haven’t seen that confirmed yet.
 
Oh wow! I’m completely shocked! I did not know this! My only remaining question is, did Pope Benedict make any statements regarding Harry Potter after becoming pope?

I had no idea that the Vatican was against the Harry Potter books! I did read the first four books; however, I have not read the rest, more out of a lack of interest than for religious reasons, though. But now that I know, I’m not going to read the other books.

Man, I’m still in shock. Didn’t expect this at all! But you know, if it’s what the Pope said, it’s good enough for me.

P.S. Where can I find an English translation of the letters? My German’s a bit rusty.
 
I have been in CAF for about three years now and I have learned a lot about my faith, Unfotunatley there are times when i run across a thread that makes me ashamed of my Faith. This is one of them. It reminds me of when I was kid and would hear those radio preachers condemning Rofk n Roll and Hula Hoops. This is the most vile thread i have yet to see on Harry Potter-which says a lot considering the venom directed his way over the last few years. Where millions and millions see a great series of adventure novels we actually have professed catholics who see rape, demonolgy and abortion in these books. They actually tell us they are going to pray for us that god will forgive us of our sin. They distort the teacihng of the Church, the pope and Scripture. In most cases over a books they havent read.

I think in the end it is driven by a combination of scrupulosity and pride.It must be quite a heady expereince to have god personally reveal to you that so many millions of us have been duped and are puting our souls and the souls of our children at risk…It must be a real trip when you open scripture and run across a verse and realize you are first on your block to realize it condmenms Harry Potter And oh how good it must feel when one conedscendedly tells us they are going to pray for us, probably with a . “Dear god if only they were as perceptive as I”

1 1/2 years ago my Dauhgter introduced me to the Harry Potter series. It has been one of the great joys of my life. I pity those who have let their convoluted sense of sin .deny them the joy so many of us have experienced
 
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