Comments on: Rita Skeeter Covers the Vatican

By: Christina

Christina — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:53:52 +0000

Having know Cardinal Ratzinger in a somewhat personal manner, I believe that he did make the statement in question. And he would not have made such a statement without knowledge of the novels themselves.

By: Hogwarts Professor · News from Iran: Harry Potter a Zionist Conspiracy

Hogwarts Professor · News from Iran: Harry Potter a Zionist Conspiracy — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:25:43 +0000

[...] that it still leaves me shaking my head. It really isn’t anything like the cockeyed “Pope Condemns Harry Potter” story cooked up by some Star Chamber Catholics at the release of Order of the Phoenix. That [...]

By: Forks High School Professor · Why Repress Discussion of Mormon Content in Twilight? Mrs. Meyer’s Feminist Story Message

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:51:20 +0000

[...] you’d expect from the web site of the Star Chamber Catholics in Ontario that gave us ‘Pope Condemns Harry Potter,” Ms. Gilbert’s piece is a response to and rebuke of the position advanced in the [...]

By: Hogwarts Professor · Why Repress Discussion of Mormon Content in Twilight? Meyer’s Criticism of Her Community

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:02:21 +0000

By: Hogwarts Professor · Haven’t We Been Here Before?

Hogwarts Professor · Haven’t We Been Here Before? — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:39:33 +0000

[...] of the virtual reality experience we had in 2005 when Star Chamber Catholics in Canada created the “Pope Condemns Harry Potter” controversy on the eve of Order of the Phoenix‘ [...]

By: Forks High School Professor · “Vatican Condemns Twilight”? Yes and No.

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:37:49 +0000

[...] I have three quick points about these headlines and articles beyond my reflex “haven’t we been here before?”: [...]

By: HogwartsProfessor.com · Christian Controversy/Conversation Continues

HogwartsProfessor.com · Christian Controversy/Conversation Continues — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:00:10 +0000

[...] is really happening. As covered back in the day of ‘Pope Condemns Harry Potter’ (2005), Rita Skeeter is still covering the Vatican. If you read the story (here’s another version), it seems the Pope and friends have given the [...]

By: The Vatican and Harry Potter « Vox Nova

The Vatican and Harry Potter « Vox Nova — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:59:11 +0000

[...] I found a long, but important, post by John Granger, which goes into the full story behind the Pope’s so-called condemnation, and goes into details rarely heard. According to the published letters, Cardinal Ratzinger encouraged the author of an anti-Harry Potter book to send her book to Fr. Fleetwood (of the Pontifical Council of Culture). She did. She did not, however, get the response she was expecting or hoping for. Instead, she received a criticism of her book. Read the full story here. [...]

By: Felicity

Felicity — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 16:25:24 +0000

John Allen, a reporter for the National Catholic Register, wrote the following last September in response to another news story claiming the “pope” or the “vatican” had condemned the Harry Potter books:

“A story hit the wires this week that Pauline Fr. Gabriele Amorth, described as “the Vatican’s exorcist,” has declared that Hitler and Stalin were possessed, and that the Harry Potter books bear “the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil.”

For the record, Amorth is not “the Vatican’s exorcist.”

He is instead one of nine approved exorcists in the Rome diocese, a ministry he has carried out since 1986. He works out of a small office in the headquarters of the Pauline order in Rome, receiving people who seek his help 365 days a year. He draws many of the same faithful who flocked to exorcism services of Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo. (Amorth, by the way, recently suggested that Milingo too is under the influence of the devil, given his decision to renew his links with the followers of Rev. Sun Myung Moon).

On the subject of Hitler and the devil, Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli reported in a 2003 book that Pius XII had prayed that Satan might “leave” Hitler, reflecting the wartime pope’s conviction that there was something diabolical in Hitler’s personality. Whether this amounts to a “long-distance exorcism,” as Amorth and others have suggested, is another matter.

On the subject of Harry Potter, it has become a favorite indoor sport of Roman journalists to bait anybody even remotely connected to the Holy See into making comments, which can then be played up into headlines like “Vatican condemns Harry Potter” or, conversely, “Vatican praises Harry Potter.”

Once again for the record, the Vatican has never officially taken a position on J.K. Rowling’s work.

For a different view from Amorth’s, however, Msgr. Peter Fleetwood, a former Vatican official who now works in Geneva, offered this interpretation in a 2003 press conference:

“As far as I can tell, the chief concern of the author is to help children to understand the conflict between good and evil,” Fleetwood said. “I don’t see the least problem in the ‘Harry Potter’ films.” ”

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So as I’ve written on other websites, when clerics like Rev Amorth or Msgr. Fleetwood make statements condemning or supporting the Harry Potter books, they are acting on their own and they do not speak for the Church or for Pope Benedict XVI. There is NO official position in the Roman Catholic Church regarding the Harry Potter books.