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

Reports in Europe say that as Prefect, Benedict saw perils with Harry Potter

https://www.spiritdaily.org/popepotter.htm
If reports out of Europe are accurate, Pope Benedict XVI has a negative view of the phenomenally popular novels by J. K. Rowling, who writes on the adventures of the young wizard named Harry Potter.
In recent years proponents of the occult novels, including many Catholics, have argued that they are only entertainment and have pointed to Father Peter Fleetwood, a priest who had been on the Pontifical Council for Culture and who at a press conference about the New Age indicated that he had no problem with the books.

It was an off-handed remark in response to a question from a liberal reporter but because the priest was connected with a pontifical group, it led proponents to declare his remarks as the Vatican's (and hence John Paul II's) viewpoint. Suddenly, the Pope was declared as a fan of Harry Potter. "The Vatican Backs Harry Potter" and "The Vatican is Giving Two Thumbs Up to the Harry Potter Series" were among the headlines that quickly grabbed world attention.

Of course, the Vatican never did take a formal stand on Potter (it was the view of a single priest), and in fact around the same time the official exorcist for the City of Rome, Gabriele Amorth, warned loudly -- including in The New York Times -- that the books could be dangerous. So did authors such Gabriele Kuby, a German sociologist who penned a book, Harry Potter - Gut Oder Böse ("Harry Potter, Good or Bad?") pointing out the hazards of books that glorify witchcraft. According to one review, it was Kuby's concern that Harry Potter may have the long-term aim of reducing inhibitions against the occult and that Hogwarts -- the school for witchcraft and sorcery -- "is a closed world of violence and horror, curses and bewitchment, racial ideology, blood sacrifice, gore, and possession -- an atmosphere that could be transferred to the young reader" (as indeed occult books often transfer negativity to the reader or viewer). The books are "counter-faith" – replacing Christianity with occult powers, Kuby has implied, adding that instead of a lesson on good winning over evil -- as many defenders describe the series – evil has grown stronger as the series has evolved. She argues that it was unconstitutional for churches to use the books in school, according to the review.
In 2003, Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect for the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reportedly wrote a letter to Kuby in which he lauded her work. In the letter Benedict applauded Kuby for "educating the public" and cited the apprentice magician's "subtle seduction," reports Ludger Lufthaus in Die Zeit, a German journal.
"It is good," wrote Cardinal Ratzinger, according to one translation, "that you carefully clarify any philosophical questions, especially those which may address important ecclesiastical concerns," adding that "subtle seduction of the heart and soul, albeit somewhat imperceptible, must be exposed wherever it is found."
In another translation the quote from the Pope in his letter to Kuby states: "It is good that you explain the facts of Harry Potter, because this is a subtle seduction, which has deeply unnoticed and direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity before it can really grow properly." Whatever the precise translation, this is big news not only because Cardinal Ratzinger is now Pope – leader of millions of Catholics who have read the books, or allowed their children to do so -- but because another major Rowling book is due in a few weeks and promises to be a blockbuster. Will Benedict, now that he is Pope, enter the fray?
Many good Christians have decided that the Potter series is harmless and fret that opposing it paints Christians as Pentecostal-style "extremists." Even the film department of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops supported the last movie. But Kuby sees hidden agendas behind the world's most popular children's books. The world of humans is denigrated, summarized the reviewer, while the world of witches and sorcerers is glorified. Evil is good. Some point out that the Rowling books include actual wiccan incantations.
Such allegations have caused an outcry by the likes of Hollywood.com and also a Welsh firebrand singer named
Charlotte Church -- who sang for the last Pope but apparently isn't too happy with the new one. "Charlotte, who maintains she is a good Catholic girl, has attacked Benedict XVI -- and it's all over Harry Potter!" says a publication called Sky.com. "The 19-year-old 'Voice of an Angel' claims he is talking a bunch of old Hogwarts after he branded the books 'products of evil.' Potter fan Charlotte is quoted in the Sun as saying: 'I'm from a Catholic family. But I don't like this new Pope. He even wants to ban Harry Potter!'"
Oh, that he would.

Vatican newspaper says Harry Potter film champions values

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1102767.htm

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service, Vatican City, July 12, 2011

The last battle of the almost-grownup Harry Potter may be too scary for young viewers, but it champions the values of friendship and sacrifice, the Vatican newspaper said.

"The atmosphere of the last few episodes, which had become increasingly dark and ominous, reaches its pinnacle," said one of two reviews of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" printed July 12 in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

The darkness "may disturb younger audiences," said reviewer Gaetano Vallini.

"Death, which was a rare occurrence (in the previous Harry Potter films) is the protagonist here," which is another reason the film may not be appropriate for everyone, he said.

"As for the content, evil is never presented as fascinating or attractive in the saga, but the values of friendship and of sacrifice are highlighted. In a unique and long story of formation, through painful passages of dealing with death and loss, the hero and his companions mature from the lightheartedness of infancy to the complex reality of adulthood," he said.
Young people introduced to Harry Potter through the seven books by J.K. Rowling and the films based on them have grown with Potter and his friends, Vallini said, "and they certainly have understood that magic is only a narrative pretext useful in the battle against an unrealistic search for immortality."
In the second review, Antonio Carriero reaffirmed one point Vatican reviewers have made since the Harry Potter books first appeared in Italian: The story captured the imagination of millions of children around the world and got them reading books.

And, he said, the saga championed values that Christians and non-Christians share and provided opportunities for Christian parents to talk to their children about how those values are presented in a special way in the Bible.

Potter's archenemy, Lord Voldemort, "does not represent Satan, as it would be easy to think, but is a man who has made bad choices in his life," Carriero said.
Voldemort has chosen not to love others and sees himself as the center of the universe, he said.
Carriero said Voldemort is like many modern men and women who think they can do without God and without others, they don't believe in heaven, and yet they are the most frightened of dying.
"Eternal life is reached through death, not without it. And Harry Potter, although he never declared himself a Christian, calls on the dark magician to mend his ways, repent for what he has done and recognize the primacy of love over everything so he will not be damned for eternity," he wrote.
The "Deathly Hallows" demonstrates that "from the pure of heart like the young Harry, ready to die for his friends," come big lessons, Carriero wrote.
The film also teaches that "it's possible to change the world. It is Harry, with his inseparable friends, who demonstrates that it is possible to vanquish evil and establish peace. Power, success and an easy life do not bring the truest and deepest joys. For that we need friendship, self-giving, sacrifice and attachment to a truth that is not formed in man's image," the review said.

Prophecies on the “Potter” and the “Code”

By Fr. Joseph Aymanathil SDB, Kolkata

The Bible contains God’s message, both for those times when it was written as well as for the present times and for the times to come. There are prophecies hidden in the Bible that can be discovered even in today’s context. When we see the massive flooding of evil through the Potter series and through the Da Vinci Code, sure there must be some prophecies in the Bible about these manifestations of evil in the world.
Prophecy on the Potter series

Read Mathew chapter 27: 6-7, “But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver said, ‘It is not lawful to put the money into the treasury, since they are blood money’. After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood even to this day”. In the acts this is again recalled, “Now this man [Judas] acquired a field with the reward of this wickedness (…) and their field was called in their language Hakeldama or field of blood” (Acts 1: 18-19). The title “field of blood” and “Potter’s field” should be joined together and we get a prophetic expression applicable today.

Is that Potter’s field a prophetic term for the Potter series of witchcraft and blood? There are certain words that are very suggestive - “Potter”, “Field” and “Blood” and “Burial ground”. The name Potter is today a common surname in English. The fact that it is found in the Bible and it has now become a part of the title of a book, one may say is accidental or coincidental. So it need not have a prophetic connotation. But there are examples of prophecies in the Bible in connection with words that reoccur or are re-used with new meaning or application. Take the words, “Rahab”, “Harlot”, “Jezebel”, “Babylon”, “Leviathan”, “Gog”, “Magog” “Kedron Valley”, “Hagar”, “Ishmael”, “Son of Man”, “Molech”, “lamb”, “temple”, “serpent”, “dragon” and so on. All these words are re-used prophetically in another context as “types” with new meaning. If any of these words were to be used in the present day literary works or films as a title even by coincidence, it would not be wrong to make a scriptural and prophetic interpretation of such a word.

Connecting the expressions “potter’s field” and “field of blood” of Mt. 27: 6-7 and Acts 1: 18-19, to the present “Potter” series (Potter’s world) of the occult and blood we find a lot of similarities.

That “potter’s field” became a graveyard quite significantly. The graveyard symbolized the dwelling place of spirits both in the Scripture and in popular beliefs. For example the two Gadarene demoniacs (Mt. 8: 28-33, Mk. 5: 1-20, Lk. 8: 26 – 39) lived in the tombs. The graves are the places of abominable and occult practices. So Isaiah says about such unfaithful people, “Living among the graves and spending the night in caverns, eating swine's flesh, with carrion broth in their dishes” (Is. 65:4). St. Paul compares the mouths of liars to graves, “Their throats are open graves; they deceive with their tongues; the venom of asps is on their lips” (Rom. 3: 13) that is taken from Ps. 5:10, “Their throats are open graves; on their tongues are subtle lies”. Lies we know come from the evil one whose kingdom is of the underworld.

The potter’s field that was bought with the price of blood was to be used for the burial of foreigners or gentiles who were more associated with the occult than the Jews. Some of those buried there might have died in strange circumstances without peace with God or men. That could have the made the graveyard all the more unholy. So that potter’s field symbolized a world of the spirits and the occult.

It was too a field bought with the price of innocent blood and made into a memorial to the worst crime ever done. That was the work of the evil one who is also responsible for the shedding of all the blood in the world, “a murderer from the beginning” (Jn.8: 44). His world is a world of blood, especially of the innocent.

The Potter’s world created by the Harry Potter series is full of the occult and blood. Certain rituals involving blood and certain descriptions about drinking blood take the reader to a world of blood. There are many who buy that potter’s field when they go for the occult in the Harry Potter series, after betraying innocent blood, the blood of their redeemer Jesus. This may sound like a harsh and fundamentalist statement. But it is not far from the truth because the Harry Potter series enter into real occult with rituals over blood and once the occult is introduced the father of the occult, Satan too enters and he is the one who engineered the betrayal of the innocent blood of Jesus.

It was that blood money that was used to buy the potter’s field. It was the field that was acquired as the reward of wickedness according St. Peter, “Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness” (Acts 1: 18).

When a field is acquired as inheritance in the Scriptures it has a deep meaning. In the book of Jeremiah, there was a prophetic act of acquiring a piece of property in Anathoth (cf. 32:7). This was done to give hope to the people of Israel that they could once again buy property as their own after the days of punishment ware over. A field that was a heritage was really personal. So Naboth had rightly refused his field to king Ahab saying, "The LORD forbid,” Naboth answered him, “that I should give you my ancestral heritage”, (1 Kings 21:3). The field was therefore a personal inheritance. In that sense Judas’ inheritance was that field of blood acquired by his wickedness. Judas as an agent of the devil who as the enemy of God caused the death of the Son of God and with that money acquired the field of blood. That field of blood is where Satan has authority to reign and is in fact the world of Satan, which is exactly what the Harry Potter series are about. So there is a prophetic meaning in the word “Potter” when it denotes a series of books and films dealing with all that is evil, especially the occult.

The word “field” stands for “land” or the “earth” which meant life for the people of those days and which was like a deity for the people of those days. They even performed fertility cults to make the female earth become fertile. Today the female symbolism of the earth or nature has been given a sexy and occult meaning in certain “earth religions”. The earth commonly called as “mother earth” (Gaia) is for the followers of Neo-paganism and Wicca (a witchcraft religion) female as well as an occult symbol. They use the term “earth religion” to describe their religions because they worship the “mother-earth” with its seasons, wealth and nature and perform many secret rituals to worship the earth. They attach great importance to the seasons and hidden powers of the earth. They use herbal and mineral items drawn from the earth to give power to the human being. The earth in that sense is that base from which the occult sources are drawn. The author of the Harry Potter series has drawn her resources from these “earth religions” in a big way for her books. She is offering actually the “Potter’s field” of blood to many innocent readers through such religions that rely heavily on witchcraft. She uses actual spells, curses, charms, potions and rituals found in Wicca and Neo-paganism to charge her work with demonic power and introduce people into the graveyard of the Potter world.
Prophecy on the Da Vinci Code

The next prophecy is about the Da Vinci Code. In brief the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown denies the divinity and the moral integrity of Jesus. His book mixes fiction with dismembered historical truths and distorted facts that have been genetically doctored by him. He applies a strange combination of symbology (interpretation of symbols, codes and signs) and false documents to establish his own version about history. The basic agenda in the book is denying Jesus’ divine nature. To achieve this goal his main tool is deception. He perfects the art of deception by the falsification of history and through the utilization of false documents – for example his gospels are either Gnostic or purely apocryphal writings. To deceive the public he concocts stories and interprets whatever comes handy – nature, literature, rites, worship, art, buildings and anything on earth, through codes and symbols. This is nothing else but the agenda of the “father of lies”.

There are numerous prophecies about deceit and the “father of lies”. Who is the “father of lies” according to the Bible? John the Evangelist quotes Jesus’ words, “You belong to your father the devil and you willingly carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn. 8:44). As corroboration there are many other references:

“I write you these things about those who would deceive you” (1Jn. 2:26).

“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshipped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Rom. 1: 25).

“Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the unchaste, the murderers, the idol-worshipers, and all who love and practice deceit” (Rev. 22: 15).

“Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ, Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist” (1 Jn. 2: 22).

“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one doomed to perdition”. (2 Thess. 2: 3).

“Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will turn away from the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and demonic instructions through the hypocrisy of liars with branded consciences (1 Tim. 4: 1-2).

The Antichrist’s main target is Jesus Christ the Son of God. He does not mind if we accept Jesus Christ just as a human being or even an enlightened being as the Da Vinci Code says, “Jesus Christ was a mortal prophet”. The antichrist does not acknowledge Jesus Christ says John in the Revelations, “And every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus, does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world” (1 Jn. 4: 3). John warns that the antichrist is clearly against the belief in the incarnation of the Son of God. “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; such is the deceitful one and the antichrist” (2 Jn. 1: 7).

The original personality of the antichrist is described in the book of Revelations (Apocalypse) when it says, “The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it”, (Rev. 12: 9). After the dragon there are two beasts that come up, one from the sea and the other from the land.

“Then I saw a beast come out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads; on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads blasphemous names” (Rev. 13:1). The second beast is from the earth. “Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb's but spoke like a dragon”, (Rev. 13:11).

The sea and land are two major domains of evil, symbolically speaking. The two beasts are agents of the great dragon or Satan. Deceit is the main programme of these two beasts. About the first beast it is written, “The beast was given a mouth uttering proud boasts and blasphemies” (Rev. 13:5), in other words arrogant and deceitful words. About the second beast too, deceit is the characteristic. “It deceived the inhabitants of the earth with the signs” (Rev 13:14).
The mysterious number 666

One of the beasts in the apocalypse has a secret number that has prophetic symbolism. It is a mysterious name and so John writes, “Wisdom is needed here; one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person. His number is six hundred and sixty-six” (Rev. 13: 18). That beast “forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads” (Rev.13: 16). In those days the number meant a person but for later times it stands for evil personified and present in all its agents.

Many have tried to interpret the meaning of the number 666. Certain satanic groups have welcomed that number as their own identity mark and take delight in the fact that Satan has a number that can frighten others. It is not for us to make a categorical conclusion about this mystery. But there is a hidden meaning that points to the evil one.

The interpretation of the number 666 on the beast and the mark the beast tattooed on the right hand and forehead of its subjects should be connected together. The 666 is a special secret code and had its own meaning those days and it has a meaning for all times. That mark is a code, to the say the least, a code of evil power, a code of deceit and mind control. The special mark on the right arm and the foreheads of the subjects, is the mark of enslavement to the beast. The word “Code” is not accidental but prophetic fulfilment. The Da Vinci Code creates an illusion of exposing truth through symbology, cryptograms and anagrams – all meaning the same thing and producing the same result, that is, deceit. His symbology too is embellished with a great deal of sexology to satisfy the appetite of the clients of the “harlot”. The book of Revelations, using prophetic symbology had spoken about the beast of deceit. The modern day deceit is more difficult to detect. The deceiver dragon and the two disciple beasts have produced books to deceive people.

The Da Vinci Code that has sold more than 30 million copies will deceive many more through its film version. This is the biggest and most formidable lie ever written against Jesus Christ. It labels Jesus Christ as just a mortal who maintained a relationship with a woman, that is Mary Magdalene and left behind a child.

This book is an intellectual masterpiece that captures the minds of people and bends them whichever way the author wants and makes the minds surrender at the end to the beast. The beast actually is coming from the underworld of the New Age. It leaves a mark on people who are enslaved in mind and even body to it. Even physically, we also see many identity marks on people today that are irrational and even prompted by urges of the flesh and inspired by the occult. All the strange marks, tattoos, rings and inserts that people have all over the body are in a sense marks of the beast or of the beastly evil nature. Such people are in that sense children or followers of the beast. Inwardly they have “branded consciences”, as St. Paul says, “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will turn away from the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and demonic instructions through the hypocrisy of liars with branded consciences” (1 Tim. 4: 1-2).
The harlot

In Revelation, John sees a harlot sitting on a beast. “Then one of the seven angels who were holding the seven bowls came and said to me, ‘Come here. I will show you the judgement on the great harlot who lives near the many waters. The kings of the earth have had intercourse with her, and the inhabitants of the earth became drunk on the wine of her harlotry.’ Then he carried me away in spirit to a deserted place where I saw a woman seated on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names, with seven heads and ten horns” (17: 1-3). In the prophetic sense, the harlot is the “sex urge” of the modern age, so strongly supported by the Neo-pagans, Wicca and the New Age believers. The Da Vinci Code particularly is a sex-filled fiction and the whole symbology discussed in it turns out to be sexology. Violence too is the typical behaviour of the beasts and the harlot. They thrive on the blood of the innocent according to the book of Revelations. We see these same beasts in the Harry Potter series and in the Da Vinci Code. Typically there are four beasts that come in films and novels, which are sex, violence, the occult and deceit. And these beasts are found in the Potter series (Potter’s Field or World) and the Da Vinci Code. When we see the extent of the damage being caused to the faith and innocence of millions of people in the world it is very clear that the beasts of the Apocalypse are the beasts reappearing in the Potter world and the Da Vinci Code.