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Harry Potter Controversy Carries Over to Vatican Radio

ROME, August 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  The massive controversy generated over the letters of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger posted on LifeSiteNews.com regarding Harry Potter continues nearly a month after the posting.   The priest who in 2003 inadvertently caused the world media to falsely trumpet that the Vatican and Pope John Paul II approved of the Harry Potter novels, was back on Vatican radio defending the Potter books, responding to the letters from Cardinal Ratzinger.

The German Cardinal who was to become the current Pope wrote in 2003 to a German Potter critic saying, "It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly".  In a second letter sent to Kuby on May 27, 2003, Cardinal Ratzinger "gladly" gave his permission to Kuby to make public "my judgement about Harry Potter."

Appearing on the Vatican Radio program 105live on Thursday, July 14, Msgr. Peter Fleetwood said of the letters, "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."

The dismissive comments fall far short of the mark.  Beyond the fact that it would be exceedingly odd for an assistant to the Cardinal to make a rather damning statement on the Potter books in the Cardinal's name and with the Cardinal's signature, to later give permission to make the damning statement public in the name of the Cardinal would be beyond the pale.

Moreover, Gabrele Kuby, author of Harry Potter - gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), had every reason to expect to be written by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.  Not only had he previously written her expressing appreciation for her other Catholic books, he invited her to dinner.  In a recent interview, Kuby related the following heart-warming exchange, "Some time ago I was invited to a dinner with Cardinal Ratzinger. We didn't speak about Potter. I knocked at my glass and said, how happy I was that the leaders of the church were men I could respect and love. My only worry was, who would be the next Pope. He replied: 'Don't worry. The church has many good servants of God.'"

In his remarks on Vatican Radio, Msgr. Fleetwood also casts Kuby and other Potter critics in a negative light, suggesting that they are motivated by envy due to the success of the Potter novels.  "I think one has to be quite calm in judging cultural phenomena. I've got a funny feeling that the success of Rowling is what started some people. Is it a kind of envy? I don't know. But why they got so mad against her, I just don't understand," said Fleetwood.

Kuby took issue with Fleetwood's suggestion of 'envy' as her motivation and with the falsehoods about the letters being written by an assistant.  On July 20, she issued an open letter to Fr. Fleetwood asking him to correct the misinformation.  On July 20, Kuby wrote, "you and I believe in a society where different opinions can be put forward. As a priest and consultant of the Papal Council for Culture I ask you to publicly correct your statements and 'suspicions' that are not in accordance with the truth."  To date there has been no reply.

The popular characterization of all Potter criticisms as the knee-jerk reaction of dim-witted fundamentalism is shown lacking by the calibre of potter critics who include, besides then-Cardinal Ratzinger and Gabriele Kuby,  Rome's chief exorcist and also the President of the International Association of Exorcists Gabriel Amorth, Catholic novelist and artist Michael O'Brien and EWTN Radio personality, Matthew Arnold

Arnold has produced a three-tape set The Trouble with Harry, from the unique perspective of a convert from occult beliefs and practices.  Speaking as a Catholic father, who as a youth entered into the dark world of the occult precisely because of fantasy fiction, Matthew says, "While Rowling's books may be fantasy, we must realize that the occult is real. And just like violence and pornography, kids are desensitized by exposure."

Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jul/05071301.html

World Media Falsely Trumpet Pope's Approval of Harry Potter
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/feb/03020703.html

Transcript of the Vatican Radio program 105live on Harry Potter
http://www.catholicinsider.com/scripts/hp_transcript.php

Gabrele Kuby website
http://www.gabriele-kuby.de/

Kuby's Open Letter to Father Fleetwood
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005_docs/KubytoFleetwood.pd...

Rome's Chief Exorcist Warns Parents Against Harry Potter
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jan/02010202.html

Michael O'Brien Website
http://www.studiobrien.com/

Matthew Arnold Tapes, The Trouble With Harry Potter
http://www.catholiccompany.com/product_detail.cfm?ID=2404

jhw

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