One Day Away

As my close friends know, I am a Harry Potter fan. I came into the fold after seeing the first movie. I watched it out of pure curiosity and was enchanted. I then started reading the books and became a fan. The first four books had already been released by this time, so I had plenty of reading to do, and never felt the agony of waiting for each to come out until I finished the first four and had to wait for book five which took two years to come out after my foray into the Potter universe. It has been two years since the release of book five and book six will be arriving by UPS to me tomorrow. (Yes, I pre-ordered my copy, as I did for book five).

I am also one day away from the beginning of my shutdown week. One glorious week of sleeping in and spending time with my S.O....and reading book six.

One thing I do remember when Potter-mania was sweeping the children of the land and I was not yet initiated into the world was the huge outcry of Catholics and Christians denouncing the book as teaching children evil when they had not read the book themselves. If they had read the book, it shows the fight between good and evil, and Harry is on the good side.

I've heard rumor that Pope Benedict wrote letters about Harry Potter while still Cardinal basically denouncing Harry Potter as well. Today while reading one of the fan sites, The Leaky Cauldron, (Mugglenet is also a great fan site) according to transcripts of a Vatican radio address aired yesterday and made available by CatholicInsider.com, say that remarks made have been misinterpreted.

Monsignor Fleedwood states in the radio address:
"I was sent a letter from a lady in Germany who claimed to have written to the then Cardinal Ratzinger, saying that she thought Harry Potter was a bad thing. And the letter back, which I suspect was written by an assistant of the then cardinal Ratzinger in his office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, suggested that there was a subtle seduction in the books. What that subtle seduction was, was not specified, which makes me think it was a generic answer. And she had written a book on these subjects and so the Cardinal's signature was at the bottom of the letter, suggesting she should send me the book. She sent me the book, and I found it a very unsatisfactory book. I don't think she understands English humour."

He goes on: "I remain firmly convinced that the Harry Potter novels are very well written. They are written on the classical plot of good versus evil in the standard way that the old myths were written. The characters are built up around that: the goodies and the baddies so to speak, and I can't see that that's a bad thing for children, when goodness, and the people on the side of goodness are portrayed as the ones who will eventually win. Harry's enemies resort to all sorts of evil things, and they are the ones who lose in the end. I don't see what's wrong with that, and I can't see that does any harm to children. What my advice would still be to parents: if you're in doubt, read the books yourselves, the first one, that's the shortest one, and see what you think. Don't simply rely on somebody else's opinion, not even on my opinion, since it's only an opinion."

You still hear little blurbs from someone each time a book is released that Harry Potter is teaching children evil. This is refreshing. An opinion by a Catholic Monsignor that Harry Potter is basically good fantasy, just like old myths we all learn growing up. Thank you Monsignor for your words that will hopefully silence the narrow-minded thinking that has become so pervasive nowadays, at least on this subject.