Harry Potter is unsafe for Christians Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online

World media falsely trumpets Pope’s approval of Harry Potter

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/world-media-falsely-trumpet-popes-approval-of-harry-potter

Vatican, February 7, 2003

“Pope Approves Potter” headlined the Toronto Star, the BBC rendered it “Pope Sticks Up for Potter Books”, and the Chicago Sun Times bellowed, “Harry Potter Is Ok With The Pontiff.”  Has Pope John Paul II actually become a fan of J.K Rowling’s boy-witch tale, which Rome’s chief exorcist insinuated was inspired by Satan?  No, journalistic license has been rampant on this one.

At a Vatican press conference to present a study document on the New Age drawn up by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, one of the presenters - Fr. Peter Fleetwood - made a positive comment on the Harry Potter books in response to a question from a reporter.

Rev. Fleetwood, apparently a Potter fan, said, “If I have understood well the intentions of Harry Potter’s author, they help children to see the difference between good and evil And she is very clear on this.” He said Rowling is “Christian by conviction, is Christian in her mode of living, even in her way of writing.”

The resulting press coverage proclaiming Vatican approval for Harry Potter far outstripped the coverage given to the actual document on the New Age.  In French, Spanish, Italian, German, English, and even Turkish, and from Italy to Australia and Canada to South Africa headlines proclaimed “Vatican okays Harry Potter” (News24, South Africa), “Vatican: Harry Potter’s OK with us” (CNN Asia), “Vatican gives blessing to Harry Potter” (Scotsman), “VATICAN JUST WILD ABOUT HARRY” (Barrie Examiner, Canada).

Despite the massive coverage for this off the cuff remark, the world media scarcely gave any coverage to a more official statement from Rome on the Potter series. In early December 2001, Rome’s official exorcist, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, warned parents against the Harry Potter book series. The priest, who is also the president of the International Association of Exorcists, said Satan is behind the works. In an interview with the Italian ANSA news agency, Rev. Amorth said “Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil.”

The exorcist, with his decades of experience in directly combating evil, explained that J.K. Rowling’s books contain innumerable positive references to magic, “the satanic art”. He noted that the books attempt to make a false distinction between black and white magic, when in fact, the distinction “does not exist, because magic is always a turn to the devil.” Rev. Amorth also criticized the disordered morality presented in Rowling’s works, noting that they suggest that rules can be contravened and lying is justified when they work to one’s benefit.

Dangerous Gnosticism on the rise

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North Haven, Connecticut, April 14, 2003

The National Catholic Register on line has just published two articles by Father Alfonso Aguilar (see page 167) on the dangerous growing phenomenon of the ancient heresy of gnosticism. Fr. Aguilar writes that “Gnosticism may be, at the beginning of the third millennium, the most dangerous enemy to our Christian faith”. 

The author says that gnosticism is the ideological soil that “Harry Potter, the Star Wars series, The Matrix, Masonry, New Age and the Raelian cult, which claims to have cloned the first baby”, all have in common. The entertaining movies are not harmful in themselves emphasizes Aguilar, but they are “signs” of the “atheistic religion” and “alternative spirituality” of gnosticism.

Pope John Paul has written that gnosticism has returned “under the guise of the so-called New Age”. Gnosticism emphasizes acquiring “secret knowledge”. Part of that secret knowledge, supposedly given only to a few “spiritual” people, is that only spirit is good and “Everything material, like man’s body, is foul and evil”. This contradicts Christian teaching that the all creation was made good and that both body and soul will rise for eternity.

For those who treasure life and family, gnosticism must be seen as a serious danger. If the material world and the human body are seen as evil and knowledge of truth is given only to an elite few, then the sacredness of human life and of family life must naturally be endangered by gnostics who hold political and other power.

See the Catholic register articles
Gnosticism and the Struggle for the World’s Soul*
Into the Gnostic Wonderland


*Gnosticism, Harry Potter and the Faith

http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/gnosticism_harry_potter_and_the_faith

May 18, 2003

Father Alfonso Aguilar's (see page 167) essays “Gnosticism and the Struggle for the World's Soul" and “Into the Gnostic Wonderland" (March 30-April 5 and April 6-12) were excellent and entirely correct. I believe he has truly understood and emphasized the Holy Father's increasing concern with this phenomenon.

I can personally attest to the accuracy of his analysis of The Matrix. Following the release of the DVD version of the film, in an online forum with the creators of The Matrix (Larry and Andy Wachowski), I put this very question to them, and received the following answer:

Me: “Have you ever been told that The Matrix has Gnostic overtones?

Wachowski Bros: “Do you consider that to be a good thing? I would.” (Source: http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/cmp/lar ryandychat.html)

Father Aguilar makes the strong case that neo-Gnosticism (pun intended) is one of the dominant ideologies in popular culture today. From The Matrix to the Harry Potter series to Memento, there is a renewed effort to sensitize the masses to this un-Christian philosophy.

May God continue to be with Father Aguilar in his exercise of Christ's prophetic office! –Albert Gun, via e-mail

Father Aguilar's writing on “Gnosticism and the Struggle for the World's Soul" was very well done — and very much needed in today's world.

As one who was a part-time teacher in general psychology, child and adolescent psychology, marriage and the family, sociology, etc., I discovered how grateful the students were to learn the truth.

If one were to make a syllogism to prove “There is no such thing as truth,” it becomes obvious that, if one believed the statement to be true, it would be ridiculous — or what is called an “internal contradiction.” If it is not true, and contradicts itself, then what Father has written is supported — and the world needs to turn to the Person who said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light" and “He who believes in Me shall never die.”

Those who think they can make up their own truths and deny the laws of nature and nature's God will pay the consequences. I would recommend C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia stories for children looking for interesting reading material. As a young child, I was taught that it is important to learn how to swim upstream even [when] it is difficult and against the current. As my father told me, it is garbage that floats down the stream.

In today's world, I believe parents need to teach their children the eternal truths that will lead to productivity and happiness on the spiritual as well as material level. They should read the books that their children do and provide a critique that will point out the silliness or flaws.

The Register provides much food for thought in its many recent articles on the rosary, the Stations of the Cross, etc. Keep up the good work, and thank you, Father Aguilar, for giving parents a good analysis of the Harry Potter stories, etc., when they see their youngsters get drawn into the latest trends.

Just as students are grateful for good teaching, children will be grateful for good parents even if they have high standards — and this was shown at many family get-togethers on Mother's Day. –Barbara Braun via e-mail
Father Aguilar's articles on Gnosticism were a wakeup call for me: I had swallowed the red pill dissolved in water.

A few years back, I developed some interest in New Age ideas. I was drawn to the emphasis on doing good and “self-improvement through self-discovery.” It sounded like Catholic spirituality. However, for some reason it just didn’t feel quite right for me and I soon lost interest in it. But all along I still thought that the New Age movement was a positive one since it promotes the well-being of self and society.

It was not until I read Father Aguilar's articles that I realized how misled I was. Thank you so much for shedding a light on this for me. –Agnes Chan, Vancouver, British Columbia
I am a non-Catholic reader who very recently re-discovered the Register after a lapse of about 20 years. I am very grateful for Father Alfonso Aguilar's two-part series on Gnosticism and its strong influence in modern society.

I have long been concerned about the popularity of some insidious ideas embedded in popular culture, viewed by many as “spiritual" or “religious” and, therefore, generically classed as a good thing.

Such attitudes are evident in talking with professionals whose otherwise outstanding educations have left them in philosophical, ethical and moral kindergarten — resulting in many of today's teachers and opinion leaders who lack the insight to recognize the false values present in the “warm fuzzies” of the New Age pseudo-philosophers.

Then there's the ignorance of much of the secular press at all levels. I have worked in small-town newspapers for 26 years. The secular media uncritically treats all “spiritual" ideas as equal, so even persons who are considered well-educated often look at all things “religious” as having equal value. The question is not one of treating all viewpoints and traditions fairly, and allowing them equal access to the media, but the depiction of things religious as a personal spiritual buffet, where one can graze and sample without discernment, because, hey, it's all really the same thing, isn’t it?

Such relativism has found a home in sincere Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, who lack understanding of the core of authentic Christianity. They’re often left wide open to the appealing and very logical sound of much of the New Age movement.

My wife and I have two young children who both caught the reading bug early. My 8-year-old son is basically an independent adult reader, and his sister is not far behind. Yes, they love Harry Potter. They also have been introduced to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They can and should enjoy these terrific stories. But literature can also be a place where parents and family challenge them with questions and engage them in thinking about choices they will face.

I know that, as a child, growing up in a pastor's household, I would come upon dozens of strange and fascinating volumes lurking in my father's study, from Lives of the Desert Fathers and the Confessions of St. Augustine to Rufus Jones Speaks To Our Times. I believe we must bequeath to our children the exciting discovery of the whole world of great minds and ideas, because I believe that is the best way to prepare them to think critically in religion, in politics, in personal and societal values.

A few years back, when Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II was published, my wife and I purchased our copy in the mass-market paperback section of the local Kroger supermarket, alongside the mystery novels and magazines. I thought that was a small but potent symbol that there is still hope for our culture. I strongly suggest that the best response caring Christians can make to the concerns addressed in Father Aguilar's articles is to raise children who have been exposed to the best minds of the 20 centuries of the Christian world. –Harry M. Fox, New Albany, Indiana

US judge rules schools cannot require parental permission for Potter books

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Little Rock, Arkansas, April 23, 2003

U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren has overruled a decision by the elected Cedarville District School Board to restrict Harry Potter books.  After complaints from parents about the books, the school board decided last June that students wishing to take the controversial books out of school libraries would have to have parental permission.

The books which have been of concern for their possible promotion of witchcraft to some vulnerable readers were ordered by the judge into unrestricted circulation in the school libraries. A Christian commentator concerned about the Harry Potter series commented to LifeSite that books about good witches vs. bad witches would be similar to, for instance, books on good adulterers vs. bad adulterers. Christianity considers both witchcraft and adultery as grave evils. There can be neither good witches nor good adulterers and such books therefore create moral confusion.

See the CNN coverage of the ruling.

Pope Benedict opposes Harry Potter novels

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-benedict-opposes-harry-potter-novels

Rimsting, Germany, June 27, 2005

As the sixth issue of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - is about to be released, the news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prior to his elevation to the Pontificate, had denounced the wildly popular series has resurfaced. In 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 Catholic German critic of Harry Potter outlining his agreement with her opposition to Rowling’s offerings.

As Amazon books touted over a million pre-orders for the newest in the Potter series, Spiritdaily.com, a Catholic news website with the flair of the Drudge Report, recalled a German magazine article speaking of a letter from Cardinal Ratzinger to German Potter critic Gabriele Kuby.

That letter came to Kuby on March 7, 2003. A month before papers around the world were littered with false 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). The stories were based on an off-hand comment in favour of the Potter books by a Vatican spokesman at a press conference on the release of a Vatican document on the New Age. (See the LifeSiteNews.com coverage: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/feb/03020703.html )

A 2003 German-language interview with Kuby, the author of “Harry Potter - gut oder böse” (Harry Potter- good or evil?), by Zenit news summarizes Kuby’s objections to Potter neatly as its theme being “My Will be done’ opposed to ‘Thy Will be done”. In that interview Kuby readily admits that many people, Catholics included, do not see the dangers she sees in the Potter series. “I have no desire to see and depict devils where there are none, but when I see with my own eyes, when my intelligence and heart inform me, that there is a devil painted on a wall even though most everyone else sees on this same wall one flowery wallpaper design, then I feel obliged to give witness to the truth, whether convenient or unwelcome. There is such a thing as public deception - we Germans know about that,” she says. (See the German Zenit interview http://www.zenit.org/german/visualizza.phtml?sid=45441 )

The main thrust of Kuby’s objection to Potter is that the 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.

In the Zenit interview, Kuby quotes from the letter she received from Cardinal Ratzinger. In the letter, then-Cardinal Ratzinger specifically pointed to the fact that the danger in the Potter books is hidden was greatly concerning. “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,” said Cardinal Ratzinger.

Kuby’s Potter criticism also received recognition in Germany from the city of Munich’s office of Youth affairs, which at the time made headlines for indicating that the Potter books were not fit for children.

Regarding the harm to children from the Potter books, Kuby says, “That they (children) are being cut off from God, the source of Love and Hope, so that they in sorrowful life conditions are without a foundation that supports them -that they lose the spirit of discernment between good and evil and that they will not have the necessary strength and knowledge to withstand the temptations to evil.”

The most prominent Potter critic in North America, Catholic novelist and painter Michael O’Brien commented to LifeSiteNews.com on the comments 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’s 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.”

Ten Arguments against Harry Potter - By Woman Who Corresponded with Cardinal Ratzinger

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July 15, 2005

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.

Harry Potter controversy carries over to Vatican radio

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By John-Henry Westen, August 12, 2005

The massive controversy generated over the letters of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger posted on LifeSiteNews.com regarding Harry Potter continues nearly a month after the posting. The priest who in 2003 inadvertently caused the world media to falsely trumpet that the Vatican and Pope John Paul II approved of the Harry Potter novels, was back on Vatican radio defending the Potter books, responding to the letters from Cardinal Ratzinger.

The German Cardinal who was to become the current Pope wrote in 2003 to a German Potter critic saying, “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”. 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.”

Appearing on the Vatican Radio program 105live on Thursday, July 14, Msgr. Peter Fleetwood said of the letters, “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 assistant 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.”

The dismissive comments fall far short of the mark. Beyond the fact that it would be exceedingly odd for an assistant to the Cardinal to make a rather damning statement on the Potter books in the Cardinal’s name and with the Cardinal’s signature, to later give permission to make the damning statement public in the name of the Cardinal would be beyond the pale.

Moreover, Gabriele Kuby, author of Harry Potter - gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), had every reason to expect to be written by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Not only had he previously written her expressing appreciation for her other Catholic books, he invited her to dinner. In a recent interview, Kuby related the following heart-warming exchange, “Some time ago I was invited to a dinner with Cardinal Ratzinger. We didn’t speak about Potter. I knocked at my glass and said, how happy I was that the leaders of the church were men I could respect and love. My only worry was, who would be the next Pope. He replied: ‘Don’t worry. The church has many good servants of God.’”

In his remarks on Vatican Radio, Msgr. Fleetwood also casts Kuby and other Potter critics in a negative light, suggesting that they are motivated by envy due to the success of the Potter novels. “I think one has to be quite calm in judging cultural phenomena. I’ve got a funny feeling that the success of Rowling is what started some people. Is it a kind of envy? I don’t know. But why they got so mad against her, I just don’t understand,” said Fleetwood.

Kuby took issue with Fleetwood’s suggestion of ‘envy’ as her motivation and with the falsehoods about the letters being written by an assistant. On July 20, she issued an open letter to Fr. Fleetwood asking him to correct the misinformation. On July 20, Kuby wrote, “you and I believe in a society where different opinions can be put forward. As a priest and consultant of the Papal Council for Culture I ask you to publicly correct your statements and ‘suspicions’ that are not in accordance with the truth.” Till date there has been no reply.

The popular characterization of all Potter criticisms as the knee-jerk reaction of dim-witted fundamentalism is shown lacking by the calibre of potter critics who include, besides then-Cardinal Ratzinger and Gabriele Kuby, Rome’s chief exorcist and also the President of the International Association of Exorcists Gabriel Amorth, Catholic novelist and artist Michael O’Brien and EWTN Radio personality, Matthew Arnold

Arnold has produced a three-tape set The Trouble with Harry, from the unique perspective of a convert from occult beliefs and practices. Speaking as a Catholic father, who as a youth entered into the dark world of the occult precisely because of fantasy fiction, Matthew says, “While Rowling’s books may be fantasy, we must realize that the occult is real. And just like violence and pornography, kids are desensitized by exposure.”