The Pope and Harry Potter
Bleah. This thing with the Church ostensibly issuing a public condemnation of Harry Potter is a bit overblown.
Basically, someone dug up a couple of old memos then-Cardinal Ratzinger had dashed off to the author of a book criticizing Harry Potter. He:
- thanked her for sending him a copy of her critical book
- noted that he thought her concerns to be founded, and
- said she was welcome to mention his opinion in the matter
That’s it.
It’s personal correspondence. Even if he wrote it as Pope, it’s not supposed to carry any more weight than e.g. than an offhand comment by a Vatican official at a press conference (which resulted in the last media brouhaha a few years back about the Church ostensibly OK-ing Potter; it’s actually remained neutral on the matter).
Some people in the Vatican don’t like the books. Some apparently do (there were a number of orders for the newest book placed from the Vatican).
Personally, yes, my feelings about the books are probably more mixed now than they were, as at this point I’ve read enough of his writing to recognize him as a seriously sharp cookie.
Regardless, the man’s quick assessment of the Harry Potter books, which (as far as I know) he’s never personally examined, is not a license to condemn either the Church or J.K. Rowling.