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

SEX EDUCATION-DIETRICH VON HILDEBRAND

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/SEX_EDUCATION-DIETRICH_VON_HILDEBRAND.doc

SEX EDUCATION AND VIOLENCE-FR FINBARR FLANAGAN

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/SEX_EDUCATION_AND_VIOLENCE-FR_FINBARR_FLANAGAN.doc

SEX EDUCATION OR SEX PERVERSION IN SCHOOLS-FR FINBARR FLANAGAN

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/SEX_EDUCATION_OR_SEX_PERVERSION_IN_SCHOOLS-FR_FINBARR_FLANAGAN.doc

New Moon has "deviant message": Vatican

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=17909

November 24, 2009

The Pontifical Council for Culture has expressed concerns over the growing popularity of the Twilight vampire series, and called its newest film a "moral vacuum with a deviant message."

The second in the series, the series: New Moon, hit cinemas worldwide on Friday November 20

"This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern," said Monsignor Franco Perazzolo of the Pontifical Council of Culture.

He condemned the film for its occult imagery and described those elements as a "moral void more dangerous than any deviant message."

"Monsignor Perazzolo said: "Men and women are transformed with horrible masks and it is once again that age old trick or ideal formula of using extremes to make an impact at the box office."

Vatican officials previously criticised the Harry Potter film franchise for its themes of magic and wizardry, as well as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons for their depiction of the Catholic Church.

Twilight, based on books by US author Stephanie Meyer, tells the story of a romance between vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).

FULL STORY Vatican slams vampire blockbuster Twilight deviant moral vacuum (Daily Mail)

The film was favorably reviewed in CathNews http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=17894 by Fr Peter Malone, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting: http://www.catholic.org.au/index.php?; http://www.catholic.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1395:new-moon-the-twilight-saga-new-moon&catid=95:film-reviews-2009&Itemid=320 Official Website of the Australian Bishops’ Conference

Fr Peter Malone MSC directs the film desk of SIGNIS: the World Association of Catholic Communicators, and is an associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting.

Note: CathNews is an unreliable, liberal site

Do Twilight, Harry Potter open door to the Devil?

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/do-twilight-harry-potter-open-door-to-the-devil-20100320-qn74.html

By Linda Morris, March 21, 2010

The appointment of a new exorcist by Sydney's Catholic Church precedes a warning by a senior clergyman that generation Y risks a dangerous fascination with the occult fuelled by the Twilight and Harry Potter series.

Julian Porteous, the auxiliary bishop of Sydney, warns that pursuing such ''alternative'' relaxation techniques as yoga, reiki, massages and tai chi may encourage experimentation with ''deep and dark spiritual ideas and traditions''.

Bishop Porteous, who is second to Cardinal George Pell in the Sydney Archdiocese, told The Sun-Herald the Twilight and Harry Potter books and films ''are attractive to adolescents and can be innocent enough.

''However, they can open up a fascination with this mysterious world and invite exploration of various phenomena through the use of occult practices like séances.''

Exorcism is no fantasy according to the church, with the Sydney archdiocese last month appointing an as-yet unnamed priest, suitably ''endowed with piety, knowledge, prudence and integrity of life'' to conduct exorcisms, as required by Catholic canon law.

In Rome, the Vatican is preparing its first official English translation of the rite of exorcism, which was promulgated in 1614 and reissued in 1999. Its chief exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth, claimed this month to have carried out 70,000 exorcisms. Bishop Porteous - who has stood in as exorcist for the Sydney archdiocese over the past five years - warns that yoga, reiki massages and tai chi can lead to people being in the grip of ''demonic forces''.

''A person can move from the use of a simple practice to de-stress to embracing the underlining theory and religious beliefs because these all come out of religious traditions of the East and people can then find themselves in the grip of demonic forces,'' he said. ''People can be naive in that regard.''

But David Tacey, associate professor of English at La Trobe University, said demonic possession was an archaism long discredited by science, psychology and modern theology. Any suggestion that reiki massage, yoga and tai chi could have evil influence were ''expressions of Western ignorance about Eastern practices'', he said. ''This is an example of how certain voices in the church have no idea about other cultures and religions,'' Professor Tacey said. ''To argue that only Christianity can rescue people from these supposed 'demonic' forces is a wonderful evangelical trick. The arrogance and ignorance … is … transparent, and anyone can see through it as an attempt to recruit people to the failing mainstream religion.''

The main signs of ''diabolical influence'' recognised by the Catholic Church include speaking in unknown languages, including ancient tongues, and exhibiting superhuman strength.

Some victims have spoken to Bishop Porteous of feeling an evil presence around them or of feeling an oppressive force bearing down on their chest.

Bishop Porteous has been verbally abused during exorcisms yet he says he does not fear the Devil. ''You're conscious the powers of Christ are greater than the powers of evil,'' he said.

What happens during an exorcism

The minor rite can be done by any priest and provides prayers of protection and assistance for people who fear they are being tempted by the devil. Prayers of minor exorcism are built in to the rite of baptism.

The major rite applies to cases of full demonic possession. The priest wears a purple stole, representing his role as a leader of the church. He carries holy water which he sprinkles over the victim during prayers. The crucifix is held aloft, representing the most potent symbol of Christ's victory over evil. Prayers are either dedicative or indicative. During dedicative prayer, the exorcist asks God to drive out an evil spirit. The indicative prayer directly commands the demon to leave: ''I command you evil spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, begone.''

Potter Critic Michael O'Brien Takes on the Vampires of Twilight
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/potter-critic-michael-obrien-takes-on-the-vampires-of-twilight

By John-Henry Westen, Ottawa, January 7, 2010

Experiences of authors Rowling and Meyer are similar, with both their novels "permeated with occultism"

By John-Henry Westen

One of the world's best-known critics of the Harry Potter series has produced an insightful analysis of the best-selling Twilight series of novels written by Stephenie Meyer.  Author, artist and speaker Michael O'Brien argues convincingly that the latest vampire novel series dangerously twists evil into good and may even be demonically influenced.

O'Brien points out that the books have garnered immense popularity having sold more than 85 million copies and having been translated into 38 languages. "This, despite the fact they are poorly written teen romances, pulp fiction with a twist of supernatural horror combined with racing hormones and high school boy-girl relationships."

Explaining the root, of "how such a thinly plotted bloody mess has managed to obtain such an enormous worldwide following," O'Brien suggests that it is driven by romantic fantasy charged with powerful stimulation of the senses.

"In the Twilight series the main characters are highly attractive young people. For example, Bella describes Edward as 'excruciatingly lovely and forever seventeen.'" In the two films released to date, Edward is acted by the 'narcotically beautiful' Robert Pattinson, as one feminine commentator put it. Jacob Black's handsome face is matched by shirtless exposure of his muscled torso, as is the case with others in his werewolf pack. Bella, acted by Kristen Stewart, is very pretty (though not quite as much as her vampire friends). The Volturi look like exotic, exceedingly pale fashion models.

"Physical beauty is the glue that holds the whole banal tale together," writes O'Brien. "If one were to dim down the prettiness and subtract the horror from these four novels and their films … they would become no more than mind-numbing Harlequin Romances for very immature teenage girls."

The Potter critic, who was sought out by CNN and much of the world's media for his analysis of JK Rowling's works, sees a moral danger in Meyer's books as well.  "The sexual attraction and the appeal to romantic feelings, combined with the allure of mystery," he says, "all obscure the real horror of the tale, which is the degradation of the image and likeness of God in man, and the false proposal that consuming the lifeblood of another human being bestows life all around."

Quoting E. Michael Jones on the subject, O'Brien notes that Vampirism is the anti-thesis of Christianity, "Both Christ and Dracula deal with blood and eternal life … Whereas Christ shed his blood so that his followers could have eternal life, Dracula shed his followers' blood so that he could have eternal life."

But beyond the evidence in the books, O'Brien points to Meyer's own accounts of the inspiration for her novels to warn of it's questionable revelation.

Meyer said she received the main characters in a dream, and that they were "quite literally, voices in my head" as she wrote the novels.

O'Brien also cites author Steve Wohlberg on the subject who drew out the eerie similarities between Rowling's inspiration for Potter and Meyer's for Twilight, both beginning with an unusual dream.  "The character of Harry Potter just popped into my head, fully formed," Rowling reflected in 2001. "Looking back, it was all quite spooky!" She also stated to inquiring media that the Potter books "almost wrote themselves."

Writes Wohlberg: "When those mesmerizing tales first burst into the brains of these two women, neither was an established writer. Both were novices. They weren't rich either. Now they are millionaires many times over. Their experiences are similar, with common threads. Both of their novels are permeated with occultism. Based on this, it's appropriate to wonder, is there a supernatural source behind these revelations? If so, what is it?"

O'Brien quotes Meyer for a clue to the answer.  "After her unexpected rise to stardom, she later confessed: 'I actually did have a dream after Twilight was finished of Edward coming to visit me-only I had gotten it wrong and he did drink blood like every other vampire and you couldn't live on animals the way I'd written it. We had this conversation and he was terrifying.'"

Twilight's embedded spiritual narrative, O'Brien concludes is this: "You shall be as gods. You will overcome death on your own terms. You will be master over death. Good and evil are not necessarily what Western civilization has, until now, called good and evil. You will define the meaning of symbols and morals and human identity. And all of this is subsumed in the ultimate message: The image and likeness of God in you can be the image and likeness of a god whose characteristics are satanic, as long as you are a 'basically good person.'

"In this way, coasting on a tsunami of intoxicating visuals and emotions, the image of supernatural evil is transformed into an image of supernatural good."

Read O'Brien's full analysis on his website.

Universal Orlando to Open Immersive 'Harry Potter World'

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/universal-orlando-to-open-immersive-harry-potter-world

Follows One Month after Michael O'Brien Book Release

Orlando, Florida, May 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," a new amusement park re-creating the world of the Harry Potter series of books and movies, will open to the public at Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando - one month after the release of a new book by Catholic fictional author Michael O'Brien questioning the popular series' relationship with the occult.

"From magical spells to magical creatures, from dark villains to daring heroes, it's all here at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," states the Web site of the new attraction, set to open to the public June 18. "Join Harry Potter and his friends as you venture into a world where magic is real...and excitement knows no bounds."

Author J.K. Rowling has reportedly approved of the venture.

While many Christian and Catholic families have embraced the wildly popular Harry Potter series as a harmless pastime for children, one Catholic author has published an extended evaluation of the series that critiques its worldview of and influence on Christian culture.

Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture, says Canadian fiction author Michael O'Brien, was created from a series of articles over a ten-year period exploring the spiritual and cultural ramification of the series' portrayal of witchcraft, magic, and the occult.  

In the preface, O'Brien explains that, while he long avoided the novels, he eventually felt urged to do so after three friends separately described their "spiritual nausea" after having begun reading the series.

"All three encouraged me to read the books and write an assessment. Was it a coincidence, or was it one of those moments when the Holy Spirit was speaking, sending a nudge in triplicate?" wrote O'Brien. Although not initially skeptical of the books, his subsequent experience with what he considers a brush with the demonic solidified his mistrust of a series that Cardinal Ratzinger also once condemned as containing "subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly." 

In a separate summary, O'Brien says he found that Harry Potter is perpetuating a "culture of the cults" that corrupts Christian symbology, and with it, the foundation of Christian culture. "While most Christians would never knowingly exchange symbols of evil for symbols of good, many have accepted a new realm of eclectic symbology that allows a mixture of good and evil symbols to influence their thoughts and feelings," he writes. "But two contradictory symbol worlds cannot long remain in a state of peaceful co-existence within us. Either one or the other will come to dominate and will eventually demand the expulsion of the other."

Bishop Julian Porteous, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Sydney, Australia, and a practicing exorcist, in a review for the book noted that he has "long had serious reservations about the spiritual underpinning to the Harry Potter series."

Bishop Porteous told The Sun-Herald in March that the Harry Potter books and films ''are attractive to adolescents and can be innocent enough," but "can open up a fascination with this mysterious world and invite exploration of various phenomena through the use of occult practices like séances.''

"Like Michael O'Brien, I believe Catholic parents need to be alerted to the possible negative influences that these books can have on the moral and spiritual formation of their children," said Porteous.

LifeSiteNews.com Editor in Chief John-Henry Westen said the book "will enable parents to comprehend the messages which have been fed to their children and give them the points and arguments which will hopefully be the antidote to properly reset their moral order." "In all, the author's new book teaches Christians how to discern harmless fantasy literature and film from that which is destructive to heart, mind and soul," said Westen.

Ultimately, said O'Brien in his preface, his criticism of the book was rooted in a concern over seeing children stumbling in the way of the occult.

"If you were walking along a busy street and saw a child dart into traffic, would you not drop everything and leap to save him, even though you knew it would endanger your own life?" he asked.

"By the same principle, if you were to see a child lured into a realm where the activities of demons and the arch-demon Satan have a very long track-record of seducing souls into bondage, and potentially into eternal death, would you not drop everything and do what you could to warn him?"

Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture is available for $24.90 USD with free worldwide shipping.

Click here to purchase Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture.

'Twilight' of the West – Films with Demonic Influence?

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/twilight-of-the-west-films-with-demonic-influence

By John-Henry Westen, Ottawa, June 29, 2010

Wednesday’s release of "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" promises to be a blockbuster success, if last week’s premiere in Los Angeles, where hundreds of fans camped out for days in advance to get a glimpse, is any indication. 

The film’s massive popularity comes as no surprise to Canadian novelist and author Michael O’Brien, who analyzes the Twilight series in his latest book.  O'Brien argues convincingly that the vampire novel series dangerously twists evil into good and may even be demonically influenced.

Commenting today on the film’s release, O’Brien told LifeSiteNews, “Unprecedented cultural phenomena such as the Twilight series, Harry Potter and Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials series represent a sliding scale of familiarity with evil. It is time for the people of the West to awaken to the fact that we are in the midst of a cultural revolution that is reshaping our understanding of reality itself in powerful ways. It succeeds in this by rewarding us with copious sensual pleasures stimulating the imagination in all the wrong directions.”

In his book, O'Brien points out that the Twilight books have garnered immense popularity, having sold more than 85 million copies and having been translated into 38 languages. The films are now dwarfing these successes. "This, despite the fact they are poorly written teen romances, pulp fiction with a twist of supernatural horror combined with racing hormones and high school boy-girl relationships," writes O’Brien.

Explaining the root of "how such a thinly plotted bloody mess has managed to obtain such an enormous worldwide following," O'Brien suggests that it is driven by romantic fantasy charged with powerful stimulation of the senses.

"In the Twilight series the main characters are highly attractive young people. For example, Bella describes Edward as 'excruciatingly lovely and forever seventeen.'" In the two films released to date, Edward is acted by the 'narcotically beautiful' Robert Pattinson, as one feminine commentator put it. Jacob Black's handsome face is matched by shirtless exposure of his muscled torso, as is the case with others in his werewolf pack. Bella, acted by Kristen Stewart, is also attractive (though not quite as much as her vampire friends). The Volturi look like exotic, exceedingly pale fashion models.

"Physical beauty is the glue that holds the whole banal tale together," writes O'Brien. "If one were to dim down the prettiness and subtract the horror from these four novels and their films … they would become no more than mind-numbing Harlequin Romances for very immature teenage girls."

O’Brien, who’s book covers both Twilight and Harry Potter, writes that "The sexual attraction and the appeal to romantic feelings, combined with the allure of mystery all obscure the real horror of the tale, which is the degradation of the image and likeness of God in man, and the false proposal that consuming the lifeblood of another human being bestows life all around."

Quoting E. Michael Jones on the subject, O'Brien notes that Vampirism is the anti-thesis of Christianity, "Both Christ and Dracula deal with blood and eternal life … Whereas Christ shed his blood so that his followers could have eternal life, Dracula shed his followers' blood so that he could have eternal life."

But beyond the evidence in the books, O'Brien points to Meyer's own accounts of the inspiration for her novels to warn of its questionable revelation.

Meyer said she received the main characters in a dream, and that they were "quite literally, voices in my head" as she wrote the novels.

O'Brien also cites author Steve Wohlberg, who drew out the eerie similarities between Rowling's inspiration for Potter and Meyer's for Twilight, both of which began with an unusual dream.  "The character of Harry Potter just popped into my head, fully formed," Rowling reflected in 2001. "Looking back, it was all quite spooky!" She also stated to inquiring media that the Potter books "almost wrote themselves."

Writes Wohlberg: "When those mesmerizing tales first burst into the brains of these two women, neither was an established writer. Both were novices. They weren't rich either. Now they are millionaires many times over. Their experiences are similar, with common threads. Both of their novels are permeated with occultism. Based on this, it's appropriate to wonder, is there a supernatural source behind these revelations? If so, what is it?"

O'Brien quotes Meyer for a clue to the answer.  "After her unexpected rise to stardom, she later confessed: 'I actually did have a dream after Twilight was finished of Edward coming to visit me - only I had gotten it wrong and he did drink blood like every other vampire and you couldn't live on animals the way I'd written it. We had this conversation and he was terrifying.'"

Twilight's embedded spiritual narrative, O'Brien concludes, is this: "You shall be as gods. You will overcome death on your own terms. You will be master over death. Good and evil are not necessarily what Western civilization has, until now, called good and evil. You will define the meaning of symbols and morals and human identity. And all of this is subsumed in the ultimate message: The image and likeness of God in you can be the image and likeness of a god whose characteristics are satanic, as long as you are a 'basically good person.'"

Exorcism

http://www.trosch.org/chu/exorcism.htm

By Father David C. Trosch

The Rite (Ritual) for expelling demons (devils) from people certified as being possessed by authorized Catholic priests.

WARNING: Only Catholic priests who are both legally and morally ordained and are faithful to the teachings of Sacred Scripture, as validly understood through the legitimate moral authority of the Church, and who remain spiritually sound should attempt an exorcism.  

Devils are powerful beings and can be extremely harmful to the unqualified.  Instead, praying the Exorcism Prayer is encouraged.

Preliminary actions for those recognizing satanic activity in relation to themselves:

Immediately reject any and all types of unnatural insights whether they occur in a dream or while in a waking state. Such insights commonly originate in the occult and are of satanic origin. Such insights may refer to a past, present of future event. They are intended to seem worthy with resultant enhancement of self-esteem. Eventually the evil spirits giving these insights, feelings, or seeing of auroras will seek full control over a captivated persons being. Such possessions or manifestations frequently occur to those who have used or participated in the following:

Ouija boards, Séances, Magic 8 balls, Palm reading (even as a game), Tea leaf reading, Fortune-telling, Potions, Incantations, Yoga (even as exercise), Martial Arts (in most cases), Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter Books, Eastern Mysticism, Tarot Cards, etc.

When one begins honestly trying to live the Christian life, one MUST break with all Satanic influences that one has accepted in one's life. This would include all organized occultic behavior. Many of these things are presented as games or midway attractions at a county fair, but they're actually portals of access for the attack of one or devils. It may have been years since one was involved but until it is recognized as sin, confessed, and absolved with proper penance, the doors remain open for Satan's entry.
Many people never know that the games they were involved with as children are mortal sins that will send them to hell without proper repentance.