Of course it's fantasy. That's a given. Of course it's fiction. That's a given.
The pope is no dummy. He's knows what literature is as well as we do.
He's saying that we should think about how the lines between good/evil can be blurred. Is there even one thing wrong with that? How can thinking about it injure anything?
Imagine a fantasy world. It's got a young hero of the Revolutionary People's Brigade who goes around fighting evil capitalists who are attempting to pillage people and bring them into economic servitude.
He draws strength from 2 spirits named Stalinsky and Leninsky. His latest soul-mate is an elderly, Obi Wan type Lawyer named Ramses Clakke who leads him in opposition to the evil empire, Etats Unis, after it's invasion of a helpless, religio-socialist desert state.
Now, you might let your kid read it, right? But would you have some concern that might prompt you to think about distinctions in your child's mind that might be blurred by that book?
Oh good, we needed another thread on this...
The book you describe sounds like the Kerry-Edwards campaign, and we all watched, listened, laughed, and rejected that last year.
I'm an oldtimer now and not faced with what to do with my children in today's culture - but it seems to me if I were raising kids, I'd make it a point to know all the lyrics in pop music, the story lines in the books their peers are reading, the movies they like and so on.
Whereas I could keep my own kids from reading/hearing such things at home, they would be exposed to them every time they stepped out the door. So I'd want to discuss all the pop stuff with them all the time.
Moreover, I'd try to guide my kids to draw their own conclusions so they wouldn't be simply parroting me. After all, someday they would hit that "coming of age" point where they question every view I expressed anyway. So, "let's question it now."
Just ask that old unitarian shaman, Joseph Campbell, about the "Power of Myth."
"Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion." -- Isaiah 41:29
"For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God." -- Ecclesiastes 5:7
"Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD." -- Psalms 34:11
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." -- Philippians 4:8
"All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them...I and my Father are one." -- John 10:8,30.