It seems no one is truly impervious to the Chosen One from Hogwart’s spell after all. Although the Vatican has thoroughly denounced the” Harry Potter” series in the past (as recently as last year), the Vatican newspaper recently announced that everyone’s favorite wizard now has the Vatican seal of approval for the latest film adaptation, “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.”
L’Osservatore Romano praised the film , which opens today, for its treatment of good and evil and also commended the way it handles teen romance. It’s all a far cry from what the newspaper uttered last year, saying that the “Harry Potter” series portrayed “witchcraft as positive, the violent manipulation of things and people thanks to the knowledge of the occult, an advantage of a select few…”
Of course, the debate about “Harry Potter” has been swirling around the Vatican since Pope Benedict XVI was ordained and it was announced that the Pope was no fan of the series.
So why the sudden flip-flop? Is it a compromise? Can the Vatican endorse one movie but still spiritually damn the series as a whole? And, is it just me, or has the “Potter” debate really waned in the evangelical community while it remains alive and well in the Catholic Church–or at least at the highest level of the Catholic Church?
Tell me what you think before you head off to see Half Blood Prince” tonight!
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posted July 15, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Harry Potter caused one of my children to start reading and improved her whole academic outlook so it will always be a blessing to me. As for magic there is magic everywhere in life the creation act itself is magic. It is merely the negative connotations that people give to words and what they mean that make them bad. It is never the craft that is bad but, the crafter. A gun never fires itself there is always some person behind it. Anything that makes a child read and expand their mind can ever be bad.
posted July 15, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I saw this report yesterday, and I’m thrilled that the Vatican has finally cottoned on to what many of us recognized long ago – that J.K. Rowling is the rightful heir to J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
posted July 15, 2009 at 3:42 pm
The whole Harry Potter series is about how Love is so much more powerful than “normal” witchcraft or wizardry.
“If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” Paul to Corinthians 13:2
Dumbledore’s words to Harry at the end of The Philosopher’s Stone:
“If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realise that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign . . . to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection for ever.”
I’m surprised it took the Vatican so long to approve!
posted July 17, 2009 at 11:51 am
I have read all 7 Harry Potter books, and have never felt that they were “occult” related, as I felt many times with the books published by Stephen King. I really don’t understand how the Vatican can say that one book or movie in a series is o.k., but then condemn the series as a whole. That’s like throwing out a whole bag of potatoes just because one is rotten. I’ve been Catholic my whole life, but I’m beginning to wonder if “the Vatican says” should be changed to “this person at the Vatican says…”. If one person sees or reads something that they don’t like, it shouldn’t be decreed that it’s forbidden for all Catholics to read or see it. That isn’t caring leadership, that’s dictatorship!
posted July 18, 2009 at 9:46 am
Maybe somebody told the critics that it was bad form to complain about the series without having actually read it, and they listened and gave it a chance. Now they can’t get enough!
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