Posted on 07/13/2005 12:49:13 AM PDT by dsc
Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels - Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online
RIMSTING, Germany, July 13, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - 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.
In a letter dated March 7, 2003 Cardinal Ratzinger thanked Kuby for her "instructive" book Harry Potter - gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which Kuby says the Potter books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy.
"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," wrote Cardinal Ratzinger.
The letter also encouraged Kuby to send her book on Potter to the Vatican prelate who quipped about Potter during a press briefing which led to the false press about the Vatican support of Potter. At a Vatican press conference to present a study document on the New Age in April 2003, one of the presenters - Fr. Peter Fleedwood - made a positive comment on the Harry Potter books in response to a question from a reporter. Headlines such as "Pope Approves Potter" (Toronto Star), "Pope Sticks Up for Potter Books" (BBC), "Harry Potter Is Ok With The Pontiff" (Chicago Sun Times) and "Vatican: Harry Potter's OK with us" (CNN Asia) littered the mainstream media.
In a second letter sent to Kuby on May 27, 2003, Cardinal Ratzinger "gladly" gave his permission to Kuby to make public "my judgement about Harry Potter."
The most prominent Potter critic in North America, Catholic novelist and painter Michael O'Brien commented to LifeSiteNews.com on the "judgement" of now-Pope Benedict saying, "This discernment on the part of Benedict XVI reveals the Holy Father's depth and wide ranging gifts of spiritual discernment." O'Brien, author of a book dealing with fantasy literature for children added, "it is consistent with many of the statements he's been making since his election to the Chair of Peter, indeed for the past 20 years - a probing accurate read of the massing spiritual warfare that is moving to a new level of struggle in western civilization. He is a man in whom a prodigious intellect is integrated with great spiritual gifts. He is the father of the universal church and we would do well to listen to him."
English translations of the two letters by Cardinal Ratzinger follow:
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Vatican City March 7, 2003
Esteemed and dear Ms. Kuby!
Many thanks for your kind letter of February 20th and the informative book which you sent me in the same mail. 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.
I would like to suggest that you write to Mr. Peter Fleedwood, (Pontifical Council of Culture, Piazza S. Calisto 16, I00153 Rome) directly and to send him your book.
Sincere Greetings and Blessings,
+ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
=======================
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Vatican City May 27, 2003
Esteemed and dear Ms. Kuby,
Somehow your letter got buried in the large pile of name-day , birthday and Easter mail. Finally this pile is taken care of, so that I can gladly allow you to refer to my judgment about Harry Potter.
Sincere Greetings and Blessings,
+ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Links to the scanned copies of the two signed letters by Cardinal Ratzinger (in German) - In PDF format: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005_docs/ratzingerletter.pdf http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005_docs/ratzingerpermission.pdf
jhw
"How does the Pope feel about the Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown?"
Don't know. But if you find anything on what he *thinks* of them, let me know.
There are no real witches either. At least not with powers like Glinda or Harry Potter.
And I see where you're going with Gandalf. But he is referred to as a "wizard." Is he not?
***But then, I've actually gotten to know Wiccans/pagans in an attempt to witness to them with my life and example. Have you, or are you basing this all off the internet?***
I know quite a few of them and have witnessed to them extensively for many years.
Now I remember it, needed context. If I was at home and had the books I'd have looked up their reference, at work all I've got is mugglenet.
And you're right about the other one too, that wasn't Harry.
Yup the absolutists are irritating.
Or in Rowling's case, "chunneling."
Ok... I'm not sure how successful you've been at striking up conversation with them if you have this much trouble with Harry Potter, but good for you.
I just find that people usually know when they're sinning or have some deep problem in their life. They don't need you to tell them. They need you to show them that there's a better way without first rubbing their faces in their sin. God takes care of that part.
I believe the "apple" was a fantasy to Eve, also.
"Heh, my dad started me on Heinlein's juvenile novels when I was nine. Got permanently twisted after that."
Back when I was in rebellion against God, I told a friend that I thought a man had an obligation to take care of a woman he got pregnant.
Why, he asked, if there is no God imposing such an obligation, does it exist?
Darn good question. After long thought, I realized I had gotten it from Heinlein books in my early adolescence.
I acquired it, accepted it, internalized it, and decades later acted on it, all without any conscious awareness of the process.
I know everything about you I need to from your actions on the Potter threads. You're constantly saying it does stuff it isn't and good Christians would have nothing to do with it.
No what drew me away from Christ is that the people who were pretending to speak for Him were a bunch of liars telling me my kind wasn't welcome.
I didn't want to rebel. And I didn't rebel, I just couldn't take the BS stream from your kind anymore and had no exposure to Christians who weren't falsly condemning my sources of non-sinful entertainment, and that pushed me away. I didn't rebel, I was ejected, but now I'm back, and I'll argue against your kind every chance I get so that anyone around in the same crossroads I was in will learn you don't speak for the majority and they are welcome in the Faith.
The Hardy Boys lied, when they did, to suspects, etc. You'd never catch the Hardy boys lying to those in just authroity over them. But you are right: it's not an issue unique to Harry Potter; it's a matter of degree, of gravity and of frequency.
Heinlein's dangerous. Much more dangerous than Potter. I find ideas popping up all the time that I can trace back to Heinlein... mostly about learning and the virtues of being able to do anything you set your mind to.
If that's what the original poster meant by "species" -- then, yes, you are correct; they are both Maia (i.e. a lower order of angel). They would be the same "species" in the same sense that St. Michael and Lucifer are the same "species". But there is no question that evil is only a corruption of good -- a poor imitation borne out rebellion and pride.
I jumped the gun in my "They're not" comment because I thought someone was implying that good and evil were equal forces in JRRT's work.
It should be be remembered that Tolkien himself saw The Lord of the Rings as an essentially Catholic work.
The religious aspect of LOTR is subtle but implicit. JRRT described it many times as a Catholic book, which it is. Nothing in it is out of the scope, so to speak, of Catholic theology. But he was careful not to mention any established religion because he believed that his tale was set in a pre-pagan day, not just a pre-Christian age. It is implicit that there is The One (Eru, Illuvatar), and the Valar who are as the Archangels. But this is also an age that is pre-superstition. When they invoke one of the Valar, they call on a specific one -- just as a Catholic calls on a saint (Elbereth!). Sometimes Aragorn calls on his ancestor ("Elendil") again, just as a Catholic would invoke a saint or an ancient Roman would his ancestor.
I don't know what that means, but the reason why I suspect that Rowling's inspiration has come through channeling is because, although the novels are pedestrian, they have enjoyed unprecedented popularity with children, while serving to normalize the occult. The books are a perfect, imperfect storm.
Channeling has been associated with other malevolent cultural phenomena, like Madame Blavatsky's founding of the Theosophical Society.
Children's books I've read lately:
Leminy Snickets' series.
Chronicles of Narnia.
The Hobbit.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
The Red Badge of Courage.
Favorite YA Books from when I was a kid:
The Martian Chronicles, and similar works by Ray Bradbury.
Chronicles of Narnia.
Jupiter Jones series.
Encyclopedia Brown series.
Hardy Boys series.
"A Wrinkle in Time," and its sequels.
Your point?
They Hardy Boys said a couple of times they'd drop an investigation and didn't. And many of the people that were "suspects" when the Hardies deceived them turned out to be innocent. It was pretty frequent in Hardy land, especially when you consider the sheer number of Hardy Boy books and their relative length compared to HP. Page for page there was probably just as much rule breaking in HB and HP. For good or bad it's a part of the meta-genre (YA mystery, which is sometimes straight fiction, sometimes sci-fi, sometimes horror and sometimes fantasy), and it needs to be, it just wouldn't ring as realistic if a bunch of adults went ahead and let some kids risk themselves investigating crimes and the like. No kid would keep reading a book where the parents, or teacher, or cop found out the kids were doing these things and LET them, suspension of disbelief would be gone and the kid would toss aside the book for something that wasn't stupid.
Um... have you ever tried writing fiction? I guarantee you, there's nothing improbable about the idea that Rowling wrote the books herself. Unaided by the Devil.
They're enjoying their popularity because when they came out, the books forced on children at the time were usually about pimples, third-grade bullies, and other stupid stuff. Kids don't want to read about that, they want fantasy. The time was right and the books were good enough. No sinister demonic plot.
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