Trying to Skirt the Pope's (Cardinal Ratzinger's) Negative Appraisal of Harry Potter

By John-Henry Westen

TORONTO, August 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Since LifeSiteNews.com first published online scanned copies of the letters of Cardinal Ratzinger concerning Harry Potter, many have attempted to deny the Cardinal- now Pope's - statements on the matter.

The latest such claim to hit the news was from a report in the Catholic News Service, the official news agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

An article headlined "Catholic perspective can be seen in Potter series, says priest-devotee," by Peggy Weber published on June 27 quotes a Fr. Bernier as saying, "Pope Benedict has not said anything actually about the Harry Potter books themselves. I don't know if he's even read them."

The writer then goes on to report: "He told his audience of about 25 people that before he became pope Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responded to a book written about the dangers of Harry Potter. He sent a note to the author thanking her for the book and said if the accusations were true then they would be of grave concern."

The statements in the article, which has since been republished in a good number of diocesan newspapers, are inaccurate. The Pope did in fact, say something about the Harry Potter books, which was not prefaced with a proviso questioning the truth of accusations. Moreover, Cardinal Ratzinger gave explicit permission for his judgement on Potter to be made public.

On March 7, 2003 then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote a letter to his friend Gabriele Kuby, the author of a book warning against Harry Potter. The Cardinal wrote: "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".

Kuby, the author of "Harry Potter- good or evil?", subsequently wrote to the Cardinal again asking his permission to make his comments about Potter public. Cardinal Ratzinger wrote back, "Esteemed and dear Ms. Kuby, ... Finally this pile [of unanswered mail] is taken care of, so that I can gladly allow you to refer to my judgment about Harry Potter."

See the original LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

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

You know, I went to Catholic School for 12 years and we never went through this nonsense. In Grade School (7th & 8th) our teachers made us read books dealing with very unchristian themes, the three billion names of God, the lottery, one story involved an affair, a murder and a murder suicide.

Really, the same idiots who think Harry Potter is responsible for people leaving the faith are probably thinking that believing in evolution will cause people to leave the faith as well.

The Pope is not much for hermaneutics.

He should have gone to UVA English grad school in the 70s. Those guys could interpret any novel as a Christian allegory.

I was willing to go along with Tom Jones, but kind of drew the line at Humphrey Clinker.

I didn’t read any of the Harry Potter books or any of the Lord of the Rings books but I saw a few movies of each. Seems like both were steeped in the fantasy/magic/sorcery genre about the same. But everybody loves LOTR and say HP is the spawn of satan. I didn’t care for either that much so I don’t have a dog in this fight but it just seemed strange.

I certainly cannot see gnosticism in terms of dualism in the Potter novels. (The quote from the Vatican exorcist mentioning gnosticism was done in broad strokes, citing several movies together.) If there is anything in Potter to suggest that the body is bad and only the spirit is good, I missed it. Secondly, in Rowling’s universe, magical powers are a gift - the characters do not become magical through pursuit of the occult, they are simply born that way. The source of the gift is not addressed, but like other gifts in the real world, is sometime the result of heredity, and sometimes, in the case of Muggle born, the proximate cause is entirely a mystery. Also, while most of the muggle characters are admittedly one dimensional, a theme of the novels is one of non-interference and an obligation to protect the muggles from the forces of Voldemort. Those who are tempted by the power, even the good like Dumbledore, sow the seeds of their own downfall. Lastly, Potter learns over the course of the novels that it is selflessness, sacrifice and acceptance that are the key to grace.

I see many allegories within the Potter series that are absolutely consistent with Christian theology. I’ve read O’Brien’s book on children’s literature and I do not see the topsy turvey role reversal that he cites applying in the case of Rowling. From the commentary cited the Pope’s criticism seems more like a caution - certainly new agers can find things in the Potter series to reinforce their errors, but Christians can also find much in Potter to reinforce Christian virtues.

I do not know Rowling’s religious views, but I sense that God is working on her.

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