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
This post 51:
Right now I'm having amnesia
and deja vu at the same time.
I think I've forgotten this before.
There's no there there.
There was a thread about a year ago that dealt with what were supposed to be international symbols for various hazardous situations. Unfotunately, they were incredibly cryptic so somebody on the internet photoshopped them. They were all along these lines.
Oookay. And you are informing me of this because...?
You posted "who cares what he [Benedict XVI] thinks" and I responded, "I do". And I do. He's a brilliant man. I happen to share many of his aesthetic tastes.
***No it is not a sound interpretation, the issue that HP is occult in nature can easily be argued against because it plainly and obviously is not.****
Come on! Open your eyes. It a series of books about wizards, witchcraft and spells.
What does the author have to do, take out a broom and hit you over the head with it???
***There are no familiars in the books. That's a LIE from your list.****
You sound like your hyperventilation! Remember to breathe. The owl quite clearly plays the role of a familiar in the story.
How much do you really know about the occult anyway?
Sorry,
Try this...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442557/posts?page=51#51
And just to put this in perspective...
"There shall not be found among you anyone who... practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord..."
Deuteronomy 18:9-12
*** Scientifically? Nothing, really***
Then why demand scientific proof from others?
***The God of the Judeo-Christian Bible doesn't really make sense to me, as written.***
In what way?
The whole thing is about achieving personal power. Mystic power, occult power, mental power, all kinds of power - power to control natural forces, other people, etc. Were we reading the same books?
Ok. So in your definition of familiar, what does a familiar do?
As far as I can tell, Harry's owl plays the role of "pet".
My eyes are open, try opening yours. It's a series of books that take place in a make believe world where wizards, witchcraft and spells exist that have ZERO relationship to our real world occult. It's a different world, different set of rules, different concept of magic. what the author would have to do is actually what you insist she is but isn't: present real world occult in a positive light. There is NO real world occult in there, positive light or negative, it's just not there. The fact that all of your attempts to show otherwise have had to revolve around blatant mistruths about the contents of the books shows it beyond any doubt. If there was real world occult in there you could prove it without lies, you can't therefore it's not.
I'm breathing quite well. But you're revolving now around the idea that a lie said many times becomes the truth. You think that if you say there are familiars in the books enough times they will magically appear.
I know quite a bit about the occult actually, after many years of having people insist that what I was reading was teaching me the occult even though I didn't feel like I was learning any occult I decided to investigate the occult. Spent quite a while reading many nasty and unpleasant books that really should be objected to, and learned that the stuff that was supposedly teaching me the occult had no resemblance to the real thing. And turning what I learned to HP I find the same thing, there's simply no real world occult in it.
Oooh a strawman argument wrapped around a red herring that has no actual bearing on the discussion, how... useless.
Great, since there's none of that stuff in the HP books then it doesn't apply.
No, the whole thing is about self sacrifice for the greater good. Given what we know about the prophecies in the book about killing Voldemort there's a good change Harry (if he's the prophecy fulfiller) will be killed in stopping the evil. Not much personal power achievement there. they don't gain mystic power, or occult power, or mental power, wizards in HP are BORN with power and learn to control it.
There are no practicers of witchcraft in Harry Potter books?
No one conjures any spells?
Not witchcraft or spells as they're described in the Bible. It's a genetic trait in HP, these people can do these things from birth, all they learn is how to control it.
"We were an experiment, but he clearly has no more interest in us at this point."
Well, it seems you DO believe that there is a God who created us, one is transcendent of us. That is a good place to start from. Now, what leads you to believe that "he clearly has no interest in us at this point"? Is it that you are focusing on the existence of evil in the world as your "proof" of His lack of interest in His creation?
As Scripture tells us, God's ways are not our ways. Clearly, we cannot judge God based on our own limited thoughts and knowledge. We hardly know ourselves, let alone what is best for us. I would wonder, if God didn't care about us, then why did Jesus of Nazareth preach such a Gospel of God's love for us, a counter-cultural one at that, and subject Himself to such a death? Would you consider that the greatest of evil? Yet, God allowed it, planned it from the beginning of creation, to show His love for us in a historical setting.
Proof of this message lies in God's vindication of Jesus by His resurrection. God DOES love us, and clearly reaches out to us. The problem is that we don't respond to His calling - and thus, evil exists in the world. This message is clear in the entire Bible. If we have ears to hear it...
Regards
I didn't intend to get involved (really) in this aspect of this thread. But, well, I can't help myself.
How is witchcraft by way of "genetic trait" any different from the Biblical view of witchcraft?
Are you familiar with the story of Lot's daughters? Apparently, these young ladies believed that sorcery had something to do with genetics otherwise they wouldn't have shagged their dad.
That's the most bizarre interpretation of the Lot's daughters story I've ever heard. I'm pretty sure they did it because there weren't any guys out in the desert with them and they didn't want their bloodline to die out.
Not sorcery.
***Great, since there's none of that stuff in the HP books then it doesn't apply.***
Really???
No witchcraft, no sorcery, no spells?
Really????
Oh, so they do conjure spells and use witchcraft.
Is the source of their power Almighty God?
If not, then it is witchcraft. It doesn't matter if they claim "nature" gave them the power (although apparently they still have to conjure, it doesn't come quite so naturally as you claim).
There are curses, charms, and spells in the Harry Potter books.
That's WITCHCRAFT. The only good power we can have must come from Almighty God and be used for His purposes. It's not used for our own selfish aims (like wanting to hide from your teacher, or to steal something from another person).
It is Satan who wants people to believe that they are the source of good, as opposed to Almighty God.
I know you're trying to claim that Harry and his friends are the "good guys" and their opponents, the OTHER wizards are the "bad guys". So it is okay for Harry to use magic because he is doing it for "good" reasons. If Harry and his friends quest to accumulate more powers, it is for "good" reasons.
But you are calling what is evil, good.
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