[maryz]

Monsignor Peter Fleetwood, an expert on New Age and former official at the Pontifical Council for Culture:

"[N]o offense, the lady who complained to the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger about Joanna Rowling's popular series back in 2003, may not have quite understood a very British sense of humour".

* * * * *

I was sent a letter from a lady in Germany who claimed to have written to the then cardinal Ratzinger, saying that she thought Harry Potter was a bad thing. And the letter back, which I suspect was written by an assistent of the then cardinal Ratzinger in his office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, suggested that there was a subtle seduction in the books. What that subtle seduction was, was not specified, which makes me think it was a generic answer. And she had written a book on these subjects and so the Cardinal's signature was at the bottom of the letter, suggesting she should send me the book.

"I suspect the letter back was written by an assistant of the then cardinal Ratzinger."

She sent me the book, and I found it a very unsatisfactory book. I don't think she understands English humour. For example, she said: one sign that these books are making fun of Judaism and Christianity is that Voldemort, the wicked magician, who is the great evil power against whom Harry Potter has to fight, is referred to often as 'he who must not be named', and she takes this as an insult to the name of God in a similar way that Adonai, which is often written as Jawhe, is the name that should not be said in Jewish religion. Well I replied to her: don't you know that even within English families, men who make fun of their relationship with women in a nice, lighthearted way say: oh, she who should not be named, meaning the power in the house, their wife. You know, I think it was meant on that kind of level.

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[Aquinasfan]

"It is good that you shed light and inform us on the Harry Potter matter, for these are subtle seductions that are barely noticeable and precisely because of that deeply affect (children) and corrupt the Christian faith in souls even before it (the Faith) could properly grow,"

It seems very unlikely to me that the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the old office of the Inquisition), who was well aware of the Potter controversy at the time this letter was written, would have issued such a grave warning as a form letter.

A form letter would have stated something like, "thank you for submitting your critique of Harry Potter. You have obviously worked hard on it." Etc.