'Harry Potter' and the Pope

  July 14, 2005 at 7:13 PM ET
  Geri     HPANA (via Various)
  harry potter

It would seem that letters that the current Pope wrote back in 2003 have recently surfaced condemning the Harry Potter books. The letters from Pope Benedict were written to German author Gabriele Kuby, who has written a book called Harry Potter - Good or Evil.

It had been widely reported that the Vatican had approved the Harry Potter books back in 2003. A statement from Fr. Peter Fleetwood stated that the books helped children “to see the difference between good and evil” and was reported as official approval by the Vatican even though it was his personal opinion given during a press conference to discuss the appeal of New Age religions and practices and the Catholic Church.

Also thanks to The Leaky Cauldron for pointing out that today’s radio address from the Vatican addressed this issue by stating that the remarks by the Pope and the Vatican had been mininterpreted:

Mon. Fleedwood says:

And in fact, Rowling's books all follow the classical mythological pattern and good always triumphs over evil. She studied classical mythology at the university and uses that structure of myth as the basis of the way she writes her novels. She also was brought up as a Christian and I mentioned that in the famous press conference. People quoted that as saying that I had said that her books were imbued with Christian morals. I said no such thing. I simply suggested that there's no ignoring your own background. I also said that she's not the kind christian your average zealous priest might want, in the sense of practicing religion every week, but there is no denying that she has a christian background. I said no more.

You can read the whole address here.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.