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Benedict XVI-New Pope Hits Out at Harry Potter Books
Contact Music News ^ | 4/24/05

Posted on 04/26/2005 7:55:47 AM PDT by gopwinsin04

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To: Aquinasfan; RosieCotton; JenB; SuziQ

Well thanks for the info.

Aren't you guys a little late to the bonfire? I mean the book is out this weekend...


221 posted on 07/13/2005 5:47:42 AM PDT by Corin Stormhands (Join the Hobbit Hole Troop Support - http://freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net/)
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To: shezza

You are correct!

And as a bonus, every time I see the nickname of the future Mrs. Bing, I giggle. ;)


222 posted on 07/13/2005 6:43:00 AM PDT by Xenalyte (Make the homeys say HO and the girlies wanna scream!)
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To: Xenalyte

I'll respond to you when you can ask a little more politely. You need to learn manners and common courtesy lady.


223 posted on 07/13/2005 7:20:35 AM PDT by diamond6 (Everyone who is for abortion has already been born. Ronald Reagan)
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To: diamond6

So please, if you might, sir, tell us about the children you know who successfully practice witchcraft as a result of reading the Potter series.

We eagerly (yet politely and with a ladylike air) await your explanation.


224 posted on 07/13/2005 12:28:35 PM PDT by Xenalyte (Make the homeys say HO and the girlies wanna scream!)
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To: Aquinasfan
The problem is even more accute in the teens/young adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy section.

That's not a section I venture into. But, I can just imagine how easily occult agenda could be infused into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genera. It's an easy fit.

225 posted on 07/13/2005 5:10:12 PM PDT by Barnacle (Freeping Large - Steroid-Free.)
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To: gopwinsin04

BTTT!


226 posted on 07/13/2005 10:45:53 PM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: JenB
If you did try to get into the occult through Harry Potter you'd be very disappointed, none of the spells work at all.

So, you admit it..You DID try the spells in the books. /sarcasm

I will see you at the coven meeting tonight at Walmart, along with the other coven members. We will be disguised as housewives, grandparents, and children.

I am surprised nobody has turned this into a double header-bash Harry Potter and Walmart together on one thread-talk about saving bandwidth.

227 posted on 07/15/2005 1:16:25 PM PDT by sockmonkey
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To: gopwinsin04
Ten Arguments Against Harry Potter - By Woman Who Corresponded with Cardinal Ratzinger
Gabriele Kuby author of Harry Potter: Good or Evil

1. Harry Potter is a global long term project to change the culture. In the young generation inhibitions against magic and the occult are being destroyed. Thus, forces re-enter society which Christianity had overcome.

2. Hogwarts, the school of magic and witchcraft, is a closed world of violence and horror, of cursing and bewitching, of racist ideology, of blood sacrifice, disgust and obsession. There is an atmosphere of continuous threat, which the young reader cannot escape.

3. While Harry Potter appears in the beginning to fight against evil, in fact the similarities between him and Voldemort, the arch-evil adversary in the tale, become more and more obvious. In volume five, Harry is being obsessed by Voldemort, which leads to symptoms of personality disintegration.

4. The human world becomes degraded, the world of witches and sorcerers becomes glorified.

5. There is no positive transcendent dimension. The supernatural is entirely demonic. Devine symbols are perverted.

6. Harry Potter is no modern fairy tale. In fairy tales sorcerers and witches are unambiguous figures of evil. The hero escapes their power through the exercise of virtue. In the Harry Potter universe there is no character that endeavours consistently to achieve good. For seemingly good ends evil means are being used. 

7. A (young!) reader's power of discernment of good and evil is blocked out through emotional manipulation and intellectual confusion.

8. It is an assault upon the young generation, seducing it playfully into a world of witchcraft and sorcery, filling the imagination of the young with images of a world in which evil reigns, from which there is no escape, on the contrary, it is portrayed as highly desirable.

9. Those who value plurality of opinion should resist the nearly overwhelming power of this peer pressure, which is being accomplished through a gigantic corporate and multimedia blitz--one which displays elements of totalitarian brainwashing.

10. Since through the Potter books faith in a loving God is systematically undermined, even destroyed in many young people, through false "values" and mockery of Judeo-Christian truth, the introduction of these books in schools is intolerant. Parents should refuse permission for their children to take part in Potter indoctrination for reasons of faith and conscience.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels - Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05071301.html

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

RIMSTING, Germany, July 13, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  LifeSiteNews.com has obtained and made available online copies of two letters sent by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was recently elected Pope, to a German critic of the Harry Potter novels.  In March 2003, a month after the English press throughout the world falsely proclaimed that Pope John Paul II approved of Harry Potter, the man who was to become his successor sent a letter to a Gabriele Kuby outlining his agreement with her opposition to J.K. Rowling's offerings.  (See below for links to scanned copies of the letters signed by Cardinal Ratzinger.)

As the sixth issue of Rowling's Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - is about to be released, the news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed serious reservations about the novels is now finally being revealed to the English-speaking world still under the impression the Vatican approves the Potter novels.

In a letter dated March 7, 2003 Cardinal Ratzinger thanked Kuby for her "instructive" book Harry Potter - gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which Kuby says the Potter books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy. 

"It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly," wrote Cardinal Ratzinger. 

The letter also encouraged Kuby to send her book on Potter to the Vatican prelate who quipped about Potter during a press briefing which led to the false press about the Vatican support of Potter.  At a Vatican press conference to present a study document on the New Age in April 2003, one of the presenters - Rev. Peter Fleetwood - made a positive comment on the Harry Potter books in response to a question from a reporter.    Headlines such as "Pope Approves Potter" (Toronto Star), "Pope Sticks Up for Potter Books" (BBC), "Harry Potter Is Ok With The Pontiff" (Chicago Sun Times) and "Vatican: Harry Potter's OK with us" (CNN Asia) littered the mainstream media.

In a second letter sent to Kuby on May 27, 2003, Cardinal Ratzinger "gladly" gave his permission to Kuby to make public "my judgement about Harry Potter."

The most prominent Potter critic in North America, Catholic novelist and painter Michael O'Brien commented to LifeSiteNews.com on the "judgement" of now-Pope Benedict saying, "This discernment on the part of Benedict XVI reveals the Holy Father's depth and wide ranging gifts of spiritual discernment." O'Brien, author of a book dealing with fantasy literature for children added, "it is consistent with many of the statements he's been making since his election to the Chair of Peter, indeed for the past 20 years - a probing accurate read of the massing spiritual warfare that is moving to a new level of struggle in western civilization. He is a man in whom a prodigious intellect is integrated with great spiritual gifts. He is the father of the universal church and we would do well to listen to him."

English translations of the two letters by Cardinal Ratzinger follow:

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger                             
Vatican City
March 7, 2003
Esteemed and dear Ms. Kuby!

Many thanks for your kind letter of February 20th and the informative book which you sent me in the same mail.  It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly.

I would like to suggest that you write to Mr. Peter Fleetwood, (Pontifical Council of Culture, Piazza S. Calisto 16, I00153 Rome) directly and to send him your book.

Sincere Greetings and Blessings,

+ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger 

=======================

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Vatican City
May 27, 2003

Esteemed and dear Ms. Kuby,

Somehow your letter got buried in the large pile of name-day , birthday and Easter mail.  Finally this pile is taken care of, so that I can gladly allow you to refer to my judgment about Harry Potter.

Sincere Greetings and Blessings,

+ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Links to the scanned copies of the two signed letters by Cardinal Ratzinger (in German) - In PDF format:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005_docs/ratzingerlet...
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005_docs/ratzingerper...
See LifeSite's Harry Potter resource section at:
http://www.lifesite.net/features/harrypotter/

228 posted on 07/17/2005 9:43:43 PM PDT by Coleus (God doesn't like moderates, Rev 3:15-16)
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