01.16.08
Posted in The Harry Potter Delusion? at 4:36 pm by Brian Schuettler
Vatican Newspaper Runs Pro and Con Articles on Harry Potter, Repeating Pope’s Negative Judgement
By John-Henry Westen
ROME, January 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano has run two opposing opinion articles on Harry Potter. In the article opposing the offerings of JK Rowling, Dr. Edoardo Rialti, a professor of literature at the University of Florence, notes the negative appraisal of the Potter books made by Cardinal Ratzinger, prior to his elevation to the pontificate.
Catholic writer Paolo Gulisano, in his article in praise of Harry Potter, claims that Rowling is a contemporary CS Lewis or JRR Tolkein. Gulisano sees in Potter a story of the struggle between the values of good and evil, in which good, commitment, friendship and love triumph.
Rialti, however, points out that, unlike Lewis and Tolkein, Rowling has in her novels twisted the moral order. He argues that her books are all the more dangerous since they are compellingly written.
Rialti highlighted the concerns of Rome’s chief exorcist Fr. Gabriel Amorth that the “significant increase of interest in black magic and Satanism by the young reader of Harry Potter call for reflection and concern.” (see coverage: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06030104.html )
Rialti concludes his article with Pope Benedict’s negative appraisal of Potter.
On March 7, 2003 then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote a letter to 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”. (see the original letters: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05071301.html )
Since LifeSiteNews.com’s original publication of Cardinal Ratzinger’s letter, many have suggested that his words were insignificant, as they merely were the Cardinal’s private reflections to a Catholic author of a book opposing Potter.
However, 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 articles by Rialti and Gulisano (in Italian) here:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2008/jan/08011510.html
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09.14.07
Posted in The Harry Potter Delusion? at 7:15 pm by Brian Schuettler
I don’t know much about Harry Potter but this fellow John Granger is very fair, reasonable and BRILLIANT!
Hats off to >
http://hogwartsprofessor.com/?page_id=2
Blogged with Flock
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Posted in The Harry Potter Delusion? at 6:01 pm by Brian Schuettler
Well, guess what. There may be much more to this Harry Potter controversy than we think. Here is one for Mark Shea to comment upon:
From hogsworthprofessor.com:
Does the takeover of the Ministry of Magic in the first chapters of Deathly Hallows include a passing swipe at the Catholic Church and the Vatican’s supposed complicity with Nazi Germany? I received a letter from a thoughtful reader who thinks this is a possibility. Let’s start with that letter and examine the evidence:Hello John,
I’ve very much enjoyed following your work, although I’m not a signed-in blogger. A thought if you choose to respond to it. During Vold War II the Minister of Magic is Pius Thicknesse. Pius is a rather unusual name. Try this - Pius XII ” Hitler’s Pope.” Kind of fits - His Thickness(e) Pius XII. Anything linking to the number 12? Pius XII rather “thick” in not fully recognizing Hitler’s evil. I’ve followed the thread here on Deathly Hallows regarding Nazi Echoes but have not yet seen anything on this point.
My very best to you - keep up the excellent work.
Donn Allen
Before receiving this note I had read the name “Pius Thicknesse” as a throw-away swipe at politicians wearing religion on their sleeve and Culture Warriors who get sucked halo-deep into secular politics in the name of piety and do-gooding and holding-the-line against secular humanism.
But Pius may indeed be a specific reference to Pope Pius XII. This Pontiff was the leader of the Roman Catholic Church during WWII and the Cardinal who, before his elevation to the Papacy, negotiated one of the first treaties with Hitler’s Third Reich. Donn Allen’s suggestion merits some consideration, consequently, even if it gives the Catholic Unicorn Hunters and Harry Haters more grist for their mill. Though many of Ms. Rowling’s defenders biggest fans are Roman Catholic, we have little to no evidence that she has Catholic sympathies herself. Read the rest of this entry »
Thanks to>
John Granger’s contribution to the crowded world of Harry Potter thinking is his insistence the books be read as any other very good book rather than a sui generis phenomenon. This perspective has allowed him to explain how the magic of the books is not a departure from the traditions of English fantasy and, mirabile dictu, is even edifying Christian reading. On this weBlog John tries to focus on the artistry of and patterns employed by Ms. Rowling in the worlds most popular novels; using the five keys to unlock the greater meaning and power of Harry Potter, whence Potter-mania. John also is working hard to force the lock of the last book. He welcomes your comments in the boxes after his posts.
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…and so it continues
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09.13.07
Posted in The Harry Potter Delusion? at 9:49 am by Brian Schuettler
In today’s First Things http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=844 Catholic writer and apologist Mark Shea counters other writers contention that the Harry Potter books are occult, neo-gnostic or both. Mark specifically mentions Michael O’Brien’s article “Harry Potter and “the Death of God” http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07082003.html wherein Michael makes his case: “We might also consider for a moment the fact that no sane parents would give their children books which portrayed a set of “good” pimps and prostitutes valiantly fighting a set of “bad” pimps and prostitutes, and using the sexual acts of prostitution as the thrilling dynamic of the story. By the same token we should ask ourselves why we continue to imbibe large doses of poison in our cultural consumption, as if this were reasonable and normal living, as if the presence of a few vegetables floating in a bowl of arsenic soup justifies the long-range negative effects of our diet. Leaving aside a wealth of such arguments, let us consider Lev Grossman’s insight.
“The death of God?” many a reader will respond. “Surely he is making too much of the matter! Aren’t we discussing a single phenomenon in a vast sea of cultural phenomena? And aren’t there a lot of positive values in these books and films - even some edifying moments of courage and sacrifice? And isn’t it all about love?” Yes, in a sense it is. But what kind of love? What kind of sacrifice? And for what purpose?
The series is also about the usefulness of hatred and pride, malice toward your real or perceived enemies, seeking and using secret knowledge, lies, cunning, contempt, and sheer good luck in order to defeat whatever threatens you or stands in the path of your desires. It is a cornucopia of other false messages: The end justifies the means. Nothing is as it seems. No one can really be trusted, except those whom you feel comfortable with, who support your aims and make you feel good about yourself. Killing others is justified if you are good and they are bad. Conservative people are bad, anti-magic dogmatists are really bad and deserve whatever punishment they get (hence the delicious retributions against the Dursleys). The ultimate cause of evil is rejection of magic: the arch-villain Voldemort, for example, first went off track when he became a dysfunctional boy abandoned by his anti-magic father.”
Mark vehemently disagrees:
• Charges of Occultism: The simple fact is this: The books are not occultic. Magic is not real, as Rowling repeatedly has had to state to interviewers who ask her if she “believes” in it. The magic of Harry is, as John Granger points out, “incantational,” not “invocational,” exactly like the magic of Gandalf. Born with the talent for magic, Gandalf says the magic words and fire leaps forth from his staff, just as from Harry’s wand. No principalities or powers are invoked in HP. Indeed, if any words are “invocational” they are the prayer to Elbereth and Gilthoniel uttered in Middle Earth. Yet nobody accuses Tolkien of promoting the worship of false gods. That’s because we understand Tolkien’s fictional subcreation and its rootedness in Christian thought. I suggest Christian critics try to extend Rowling the same charity.
• Guilt by Association: Nuff said.
• The Charge of Gnosticism: Michael O’Brien et al have made a career of arguing that Harry is an elaborate anti-Christian gnostic myth teaching that we can become gods without God by the mastery of hidden knowledge.
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Not being an expert on the Harry Potter books, in fact I haven’t even read any of them, I will follow with interest this debate that I find both fascinating and yet very curious in that we have two Catholic writers who are renowned in their particular areas ( Mark Shea as a writer of apologetics and Bible studies and Michael O’Brien as a brilliant novelist and superb artist) in a very fundamental disagreement over something that, one would think, should be either black or white. Perhaps that’s the key to this entire Harry Potter matter; evil very rarely presents itself in simple black but cunningly prefers to attract the prey through the subtle shades of a preternaturally mysterious allure.
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