Jul 13 2005
Pope Fights Potter, Will Lose
I have not been a practicing Catholic for a long time. I hold dear all the teachings that make sense and mesh with other religions (thou shall not kill, love thy neighbor, etc.) . We have gone back to the church from time to time to reconnect and see how things are doing. But the biggest barrier to me is always still there – women are somehow second class and cannot be priests, ect. Could never buy into that one.
Anyway, occassionally the church makes a misstep, every human endeavor does. And I think the reaction to Harry Potter is just such a misstep. Harry Potter is a fantasy – just like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. It’s not real but fun to pretend it is. But it has good messages all through it.
It’s prime theme is love of parents, even when gone, can guide and protect you. It’s hero, Harry, must fight evil which thrives on power over others. Harry must also rely on his friends and their talents which offset his weaknesses. All of these images could be tied back to judeo-christian teachings. And the life story of JK Rowling, the author, is a wonder and role model for men and women alike struggling to make it in this world. And she did it by touching children across the globe!
But instead of using the popular story to connect with young children (and trust me, nothing connects to children today more than Harry Potter) – the church comes out against the books.
LifeSiteNews.com has obtained and made available online copies of two letters sent by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was recently elected Pope, to a German critic of the Harry Potter novels. In March 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 Gabriele Kuby outlining his agreement with her opposition to J.K. Rowling’s offerings. (See below for links to scanned copies of the letters signed by Cardinal Ratzinger.)
As the sixth issue of Rowling’s Harry Potter series – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – is about to be released, the news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed serious reservations about the novels is now finally being revealed to the English-speaking world still under the impression the Vatican approves the Potter novels.
Well, that is not how I would have attracted a new generation to the teachings of the Church. Then again, I ain’t the pope.
You could look into other churches, too… I’m not into the patriarchal structure that is mother church either, but there are a hundred different varieties of Christianity within half an hour of my home on Sunday morning… some, like my church, even approve of femail ordainment.
We have checked them out from time to time. It is funny because we are very spiritual, but we also think we all have a lot to learn about good and evil. and dogma sometimes frowns on exploration.
Yeah, our religion’s not all that organized, either–Weattend a church pretty regularly, but We’re not really part of the denomination… actually, we don’t even like denominations, making our position a bit more extreme than yours, I suppose. All of that being said, dogma’s not all bad–it’s pretty easy to slide right out of faith or into darker things. I’ve seen it happen… Heck, it’ s happened to me before. So, having those boundaries can be nice…
Well, I think I know where the boundaries are – it is keeping the positive attitude sometimes that is the hard part.