I first came across this question in a Telegraph article back in 2011 when I was researching my book, “The Devil and Casari: Ad Hominem” and was simultaneously intrigued and confused. After all, Father Gabriele Amorth’s initial book (and subsequent follow ups) was a huge kickstart to my knowledge and research. On the flip side, my wife and I read Harry Potter books to each other while taking turns driving places for our honeymoon…you know, back when there were only three books…and have passed on the love for the characters to our own extremely impressionable children. How do these two subjects reconcile in my mind? How can I get them to play nice? Have I…no pun intended…sacrificed one for the other?
Turns out you can love Harry Potter and the Catholic Church at the same time, but it’s like everything else: you have to be careful with what you play. Before ancient man discovered fire and cooking, meat was eaten raw, thus carrying with it all kinds of dangerous bacteria and parasites; after fire, meat could be cooked, thus making the meal safer. Conversely, before fire, man rarely had to worry about getting burned; after fire, burns very likely increased. Simple comparison, right? The tool (fire) made the consumable(meat) more palatable and safe, thus overall improving man’s life. If not applied carefully, though, the meat could be burned, thus rendering both it and all the time/energy put into attaining it useless.
Fast forward a few (ten/hundred/)thousand years and bring out the Gutenberg press. The people wanted to hear, read, and understand the unfiltered word of God, so the Bible became the hottest book around. This gave more people access to the Word, thus allowing the Faith to spread to the furthest corners of the Earth. As with fire, though, any tool (the GP) could make the consumable (Word of God) dangerous – for example, see info on the Mark of Cain.
Which brings us to the Harry Potter issue. Much as I’d like to pretend it doesn’t, Harry Potter does normalize witchcraft, wizardry, curses, spells…all that stuff you and I both know it does. Does that mean it’s bad? Let me be clear here…*clears throat*….
IT’S FICTION! FICTION! F.I.C.T.I.O.N.!!!
Okay, that’s out of my system. Look, here’s the deal – if not monitored by someone responsible, of course Harry Potter could corrupt a young person’s mind into thinking that being a witch or wizard is cool. If not monitored by someone responsible, STAR WARS could corrupt a young person’s mind into thinking that being a Jedi or Sith is cool. I could go on with this, and so could you, really. The point Fr. Amorth was trying to make was pretty clear, but let me quote from the Telegraph article: “The Harry Potter books, which have sold millions of copies worldwide, “seem innocuous” but in fact encourage children to believe in black magic and wizardry, Father Amorth said. ” Yes, they seem innocuous, but that’s also taken in a vacuum. It assumes that no parent or responsible figure is talking with the children about this as they read, explaining how the Devil works, ministering correctly with the Faith and, above all, explaining how this is FICTION.
Fr. Amorth is right in that Harry Potter does encourage witchcraft etc – just look at the numbers – but the zero-sum game being played out isn’t realistic. Instead, let’s engage our children on the smaller issues like these so that when they encounter them in real live, they know better. Let’s counsel our children so they can enjoy and understand the world without falling victim to all of its traps.
In short, let’s teach our kids to tend the fire so not only will they not get burned, but neither will anyone else….