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Here is a different perspective on Harry Potter from the Vatican's so-called approval that was reported on a thread yesterday. Fr. Gabriel Amorth knows whereof he speaks since he works with thousands of possession cases day-in and day-out 365 days a year. He has previously reported on the shocking denials of the reality of the devil that have come from some Church sources, and the refusal of most bishops in nearly every diocese of the world even to provide exorcism services to their faithful -- one of the bishop's primary obligations.

Is it only a coincidence that on the same day when the Vatican supposedly "blesses" Harry Potter, Cardinal Egan shut down the exorcism ministry in the Diocese of New York?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/835199/posts

Interesting. I just told my wife Harry Potter was ok, based on the Vatican document and my own reading of it. But I ordered Father Amorth's book, so we'll do more research. Fortunately the library had the other 2 books scupoli(?) mentioned.

I've read the Harry Potter series trying to come to grips with the dispute. Like any novel, you're asked to suspend belief. It's not Tolkien; but putting it down I didn't feel infected with evil, either; reading the whole series at once and seeing the character development, it's hard to say that Harry is any more evil than any public school kid:-)

In any case, I look forward to reading Amorth's work. thanks.

The fellow who lent his "approval" to Harry Potter was Fr. Peter Fleetwood, former member of the PCC. Somehow this was construed in your mind as "Vatican approves of Harry Potter".

http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=30889

Code: ZE03020304
Date: 2003-02-03
Harry Potter Not a Problem, Says Church Figure
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 3, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Harry Potter has them talking -- even at the Vatican.
The name of the fictional wizardly apprentice came up today during a press conference on the document "Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the 'New Age.'"
Father Peter Fleetwood of the secretariat of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) answered a reporter's questions, saying that for a Catholic, "Harry Potter does not represent a problem."
The English priest, a former member of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said that "in each one's childhood there have been fairy godmothers, magicians, angels and witches, which are not bad things but a help for children to understand the conflict between good and evil."
According to Father Fleetwood, J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, "is a Christian, perhaps not in the sense that every bishop would like, but she lives like a Christian and writes as such."
It was the first time that Harry Potter educed a public statement in the framework of the Vatican Press Office.
Those at the press conference included Cardinal Paul Poupard and Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, presidents of the pontifical council for culture and for interreligious dialogue, respectively.