The Media, The Pope and Harry Potter

[Chris Parnell]

No: HPFGUIDX 128067

Hi 

The New Pope was elected and already had poor PR (particularly in the last 15 years) as he was the Vatican Official responsible for keeping doctrine within set boundaries. Those who did not like that, openly criticised Cardinal Ratzinger.  Upon election, headlines called him God's Rottweiler, German Shepherd and attempted to cast a pall over the new papacy. Here is an overview of why: http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/conclave/pt041905e.htm

Note the author of that document; John L Allen Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter.

He started all of this Harry Potter and Vatican media rounds, and it was HIS question at the Press Release for a Vatican Document on the New Age, which Fr. Don Peter Fleetwood replied to and was taken up worldwide. Allen gave Fleetwood a scoop which somewhat snowballed. 

Here is Allen's story from 2003:
you can read it here
http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2003a/022103/022103l.htm

Vatican official has kind word for Harry Potter’s magical world

Since the first Harry Potter novel appeared in 1997, the series has won a massive popular following. The four titles have sold 116 million copies worldwide and been translated into 47 languages. The two movies have made an eye-popping combined total of $577,184,733 at the box office.

The series, about a group of intrepid young wizards and their adventures, has also earned a small but dogged league of critics on the Christian right who fault the books and movies for promoting a positive view of magic.

That’s the reason, for example, Pastor Jack Brock staged a “holy bonfire” in December 2001 at the Christ Community Church in Alamogordo in southern New Mexico to torch the books.

“These books encourage our youth to learn more about witches, warlocks and sorcerers, and those things are an abomination to God and to me,” said Brock, 74. “Harry Potter books are going to destroy the lives of many young people.”

Such reactions have not been confined to evangelical Protestants. In Memphis, Tenn., two Catholic schools said in 2001 they were keeping Harry Potter books off shelves because of their witchcraft content. Canadian Catholic Michael O’Brien, author of A Landcape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child’s Mind, argues the Potter series “has the potential of lowering a child’s guard to the actual occult activity in the world around us, which is everywhere and growing.”

In Mexico, the Catholic newspaper Desde la Fe warned in November 2001 that in the Potter series “the rationality of science is replaced by a certain Gnosticism reachable only by the ‘initiates,’ in keeping with ‘New Age’ currents.”

In this context, the endorsement of the Harry Potter series by a Vatican official seems especially significant.

During a Feb. 2 news conference for a document on the New Age movement, NCR asked Vatican officials to weigh in on the controversy surrounding Harry Potter. Fr. Peter Fleetwood, an Englishman who is a former official of the Pontifical Council for Culture, responded.

“No one in this room grew up without images of magicians, witches, spirits and angels,” Fleetwood said. “These are not bad things, and I certainly don’t think Harry Potter is flying some kind of anti-Christian banner.

“As far as I can tell, the chief concern of the author is to help children to understand the conflict between good and evil. This seems very clear.

“The author, J.K. Rowling, is a Christian. She may not be practicing in the way a priest might like, but she is a Christian by conviction in her way of living and in her writing. I don’t see the least problem in the Harry Potter films,” Fleetwood said.

A slightly more guarded perspective came from Teresa Osório Gonçalves, a laywoman who heads a working group for sects and new religious movements in the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

“We can’t ignore the promotion of magic in contemporary culture,” she said. “It is an element of the New Age.” Yet Gonçalves also shrank from a negative verdict on Harry Potter.

“It takes equilibrium to judge these things,” she said. “We must assess their fruits among the young people. The family also makes a great difference in what kind of influence a book or movie may have, what effect images of darkness and of monsters produce.”

The positive Vatican assessment was not the first kind word from Catholic officialdom on Harry Potter. The U.S. bishops’ review of the first film was equally enthusiastic.

“Parents concerned about the film’s sorcery elements should know that it is unlikely to pose any threat to Catholic beliefs,” the bishops’ reviewer wrote. “ Harry Potter is so obviously innocuous fantasy that its fiction is easily distinguishable from real life. Harry uses his ‘magical powers’ for good to fight evil.”

-- John L. Allen Jr.
======================================

The Foundation for the Family contacted Father Fleetwood, who has amplified and clarified some issues: (inicating that the headlines were quite bizzarre:)

Here are some key excerpts from his correspondence:

S.W. - Do you agree with the headlines: 
a.	"The Vatican approves of the magic and occult practices described in the Harry Potter book"?
b.	"The Vatican Gives Its Blessing to Harry Potter"?
c.	 "The Vatican gives its seal of approval to Harry Potter"?

Fr. F - It is helpful for people who were not present at the press conference to know exactly what happened there. Cardinal Paul Poupard, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, presented the document Jesus Christ, The Bearer of the Water of Life, to a large number of journalists in the Vatican press office auditorium. They answered questions in the company of the principal authors of that document, Doctor Teresa Gonçalves, of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, and myself, formerly of the Pontifical Council for Culture. As it happens, I answered quite a few of the questions, most of which - with two notable exceptions - were on the document itself.

One of these "exceptional" questions was asked by John Allen, representing the National Catholic Reporter. He wondered if the new document's expression of concern about magic and witchcraft could be extended to the magic and witchcraft portrayed in the Harry Potter books by British author J.K. Rowling. This was clearly not a question about the New Age document, but an attempt to win a "scoop", a "sound-bite" that would make headlines. As the week progressed, Allen's hopes were clearly realised beyond his expectations. However, some of the headlines strike me - the one who answered Allen's question - as quite bizarre.

"	It is a pure trick of journalistic liberty to use headlines like "Vatican gives green light to Harry Potter" [emphasis mine], or to suggest that, while New Age is bad, Harry Potter is good. I also never said that Rowling's books were imbued with Christian principles. What I said was that they are meant to underline for children the difference between good and evil, and Rowling's conviction that, in the end, good always triumphs over evil.

S.W. - Please briefly comment on the statement of Gabriele Amorth, Rome's Chief Exorcist, "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil." [Also], did you intend for your comments at the Press Conference to reflect your personal views or to render an official opinion of the Vatican?

Fr. F - As regards comments made by Father Gabriel Amorth about Harry Potter, it has to be remembered that what he is reported to have said is his opinion. Like mine, it is something personal and has no more or less authority than what I think [emphasis mine]. I respect his opinion very much, but have to disagree in this case. 
======================================
So we have OPINIONS and a media circus, and not official Vatican Policy.

Chris Parnell 





Message: 19        
   Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 20:31:25 -0000
   From: "Steve" <bboyminn at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Papal Attack - Indirect Personal Opinion now Two Years Old


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <bob.oliver at c...> wrote:

> 
> I agree that it seems unlikely that the Pope would bother with Harry
> Potter as one of his first acts/pronouncements.  Let's face it, in a
> world beset by hunger, prejudice, war, disease, and hatred, Harry
> Potter just ain't all that important.
> 
> ...edited...
> 
> 
> Lupinlore

bboyminn:

I think I know where this comes from, but it's old new.

When the new Pope was still a Cardinal, two years ago, he make a
comment that viewed the book "Harry Potter - Good Or Bad" in a
positive light in  the author belief that there were hidden 'evil'
messages and agendas in the Potter books. 

http://www.thepatronus.com/  (...which refers to...)
http://www.wizardnews.com/story.200504242.html

About that same time, and in all likelihood because the press/media
took the Cardinal's statement as the official position of the church,
a spokesmen of the then Pope released a offical Pope endorsed
statement that the Potter books were OK. (Feburary 2003)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/world/newsid_2722000/2722445.stm

"But the Pope's spokesman said at a press conference: "I don't see any
problem in the Harry Potter series.""

"He added that the Vatican thought JK Rowling lived her life like a
Christian, and that her way of writing reflected that."

http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/001538.html

or seach Google for more related links.

Also, there were recent headlines to the effect 'Pope Ousts Harry
Potter" which in reality means that the Pope's book has move to the
top of some of the Best Seller list, thereby moving Harry Potter off
of the list. I could see some people reading a LOT into the headline,
but failing to read the article at all.

So, this news about the current Pope is really two year old new which
really was his personal opinion about a very biased book about the
Harry Potter books, and not an official opinion on the Harry Potter
books themselves. 

Again, I suspect the Cardinal's personal comment raised enough
controvery that the Church felt a need to issue an official satement
on the matter.

Just passing it along.

Steve/bboyminn