← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Gabrielle
Thread ID: 19140 | Posts: 5 | Started: 2005-07-14
2005-07-14 00:52 | User Profile
Harry Potter corrupts youth, pope warns
SARAH STAPLES CanWest News Service
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger wrote to publicly condemn the Harry Potter books as "subtle seductions" capable of profoundly corrupting young Christians and turning them from their faith.
Ratzinger's comments were included in two letters of encouragement to a bestselling religious author, Gabriele Kuby of Germany.
Kuby had sent a courtesy copy of her latest book, Harry Potter: Good or Evil, to Ratzinger, who was then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith - the principal theologian of the Catholic Church - and the right hand of Pope John Paul II.
In the first of Ratzinger's responses, written in German from Vatican City and dated March 7, 2003, he thanked Kuby for the book and added:
"It is good that you enlighten us on the Harry Potter matter, for these are subtle, barely perceptible seductions, and precisely because of that they have a profound effect and can corrupt the Christian faith in souls even before it (faith) is able to properly grow."
In a second letter, dated May 27, Ratzinger "gladly" gives Kuby permission to publicize "my judgment about Harry Potter."
The fifth book by J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was released three months later in what has become the author's signature global publicity blitz.
Millions of Internet pre-orders have now been taken for the sixth instalment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which goes on sale Saturday.
Vatican press office director Joaquin Navarro Valls could not be reached yesterday. The Canadian publisher of the novel, Raincoast Books, declined to comment and referred the matter to Rowling's London-based agent, who was unavailable for comment.
Religious detractors have argued Rowling offers an ambiguous description of magic, witchcraft and aspects of the occult, debasing 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian symbolism and making it difficult for young Potter readers to discern Christian concepts of good and evil, said Michael O'Brien, a Canadian Potter critic and well-known author of Catholic fiction.
One of the key Christian symbols, the serpent, representing Satan and satanic influence on Earth, for example, is portrayed in Harry Potter books as either a benign or a morally indistinct force, O'Brien said. "There are 'good snakes' and a tiny minority of 'bad snakes,' and ... there are 'good' witches and sorcerers, and 'bad' ones," he said.
O'Brien, whose six religious-themed novels have been translated into many languages, added he considers the books' symbolic distortions a spiritual threat to youth comparable to the modern-day scourge of drug addiction.
"Is just any book worth reading? Let's say that a phenomenally successful series of books posited a set of good drug dealers against a set of bad drug dealers, and used drug dealing as a metaphor for the struggle between good and evil."
Rowling has the right to publish, he said, but officials should "think twice about putting them in school libraries."
Ratzinger's condemnation of Harry Potter received wide media attention in Germany in 2003, and the city of Munich's office of youth affairs made headlines for declaring the Potter books unfit for children.
English-language newspapers and television, conversely, reported the Vatican had endorsed the series, an error based on a misinterpretation of offhand remarks by a papal spokesperson during a media briefing, said John-Henry Westen, editor of LifeSiteNews.com, a Canadian religious news service.
"When you had the English-language media saying around the world that 'the Vatican loves Harry Potter,' there hasn't been a fair airing" of religious criticism of the series, Westen said.
News of the letters to Kuby have only recently begun circulating in a few English-language Christian Web sites, he said.
"I think with these letters now coming to light, a debate might now begin."
Kuby - whose book My Path to Mary: the Power of Living Faith, published by Random House, was a German bestseller in 1998 - said she was "absolutely repelled" by the approval some
Catholics, including priests, had expressed for Harry Potter.
"My greatest question is, why do they not see it for what it is?" she said.
[url]http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=42b3dc19-1283-4b36-8c4d-2198ae9a8240[/url]
2005-07-14 04:08 | User Profile
Judeo-Christian symbolism Christianity isn't Judeo, :cowboy: lol.
I think this is pathetic. I mean for God's sake what does a freaking fiction book have to do with "discerning" good and evil. Good and evil don't even have to be "discerned," the untrained eye can tell the difference.
2005-07-14 05:06 | User Profile
Pope fail to excommunicate clergy men who fondle and bugger young boys. Pope covers up for them an enacts policy of enabling. Pope refuses to allow clergy to marry.
And Pope then blames a fiction book aimed at school age, new age, neurotics for the problems of youth.
Which comedy special am I watching?
[QUOTE=Gabrielle]Harry Potter corrupts youth, pope warns
SARAH STAPLES CanWest News Service
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger wrote to publicly condemn the Harry Potter books as "subtle seductions" capable of profoundly corrupting young Christians and turning them from their faith.
Ratzinger's comments were included in two letters of encouragement to a bestselling religious author, Gabriele Kuby of Germany.
Kuby had sent a courtesy copy of her latest book, Harry Potter: Good or Evil, to Ratzinger, who was then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith - the principal theologian of the Catholic Church - and the right hand of Pope John Paul II.
In the first of Ratzinger's responses, written in German from Vatican City and dated March 7, 2003, he thanked Kuby for the book and added:
"It is good that you enlighten us on the Harry Potter matter, for these are subtle, barely perceptible seductions, and precisely because of that they have a profound effect and can corrupt the Christian faith in souls even before it (faith) is able to properly grow."
In a second letter, dated May 27, Ratzinger "gladly" gives Kuby permission to publicize "my judgment about Harry Potter."
The fifth book by J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was released three months later in what has become the author's signature global publicity blitz.
Millions of Internet pre-orders have now been taken for the sixth instalment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which goes on sale Saturday.
Vatican press office director Joaquin Navarro Valls could not be reached yesterday. The Canadian publisher of the novel, Raincoast Books, declined to comment and referred the matter to Rowling's London-based agent, who was unavailable for comment.
Religious detractors have argued Rowling offers an ambiguous description of magic, witchcraft and aspects of the occult, debasing 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian symbolism and making it difficult for young Potter readers to discern Christian concepts of good and evil, said Michael O'Brien, a Canadian Potter critic and well-known author of Catholic fiction.
One of the key Christian symbols, the serpent, representing Satan and satanic influence on Earth, for example, is portrayed in Harry Potter books as either a benign or a morally indistinct force, O'Brien said. "There are 'good snakes' and a tiny minority of 'bad snakes,' and ... there are 'good' witches and sorcerers, and 'bad' ones," he said.
O'Brien, whose six religious-themed novels have been translated into many languages, added he considers the books' symbolic distortions a spiritual threat to youth comparable to the modern-day scourge of drug addiction.
"Is just any book worth reading? Let's say that a phenomenally successful series of books posited a set of good drug dealers against a set of bad drug dealers, and used drug dealing as a metaphor for the struggle between good and evil."
Rowling has the right to publish, he said, but officials should "think twice about putting them in school libraries."
Ratzinger's condemnation of Harry Potter received wide media attention in Germany in 2003, and the city of Munich's office of youth affairs made headlines for declaring the Potter books unfit for children.
English-language newspapers and television, conversely, reported the Vatican had endorsed the series, an error based on a misinterpretation of offhand remarks by a papal spokesperson during a media briefing, said John-Henry Westen, editor of LifeSiteNews.com, a Canadian religious news service.
"When you had the English-language media saying around the world that 'the Vatican loves Harry Potter,' there hasn't been a fair airing" of religious criticism of the series, Westen said.
News of the letters to Kuby have only recently begun circulating in a few English-language Christian Web sites, he said.
"I think with these letters now coming to light, a debate might now begin."
Kuby - whose book My Path to Mary: the Power of Living Faith, published by Random House, was a German bestseller in 1998 - said she was "absolutely repelled" by the approval some
Catholics, including priests, had expressed for Harry Potter.
"My greatest question is, why do they not see it for what it is?" she said.
[url="http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=42b3dc19-1283-4b36-8c4d-2198ae9a8240"]http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=42b3dc19-1283-4b36-8c4d-2198ae9a8240[/url][/QUOTE]
2005-07-14 05:17 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Angeleyes]Pope fail to excommunicate clergy men who fondle and bugger young boys. Pope covers up for them an enacts policy of enabling. Pope refuses to allow clergy to marry.
And Pope then blames a fiction book aimed at school age, new age, neurotics for the problems of youth.
Which comedy special am I watching?[/QUOTE] :lol: So how much did the publishers pay the pontiff for the publicity?
2005-07-14 05:26 | User Profile
So how much did the publishers pay the pontiff for the publicity?[/QUOTE] As much as Al Franken paid Fox News for their whine about the subtitle of his book. :yawn: Nada, niente, zip, negats, nuthing, bloody **** all.