IN a move that suggests it desperately wants to be seen as “cool”, the Vatican has done a U-turn on Harry Potter, which the Pope once condemned for “undermining the soul of Christianity”.
Harry Potter, played by Daniel Radcliffe
In 2003, two years before he was elected Pope, Joseph “Boy Nazi” Ratzinger, then a Cardinal and head of Vatican doctrine, said that J K Rowling’s stories of the boy wizard threatened to corrupt an understanding of Christian faith among the impressionable young.
He then said in a letter to a critic of the books, who argued that they were anti-religious and encouraged the occult:
It is good that you explain the facts of Harry Potter because this is a subtle seduction, which has deeply unnoticed and direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity before it can really grow properly.
But now the latest in the film series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has won surprising praise from the Vatican newspaper. L’Osservatore Romano said this week that even though the Potter saga lacked what it called “a reference to the transcendent”, the film drew:
A clear line of demarcation between good and evil, making clear that good is right, and that in some cases this involves hard work and sacrifices.
This, reports The Times, represents a remarkable U-turn by a paper that has previously attacked the series, saying that, although the books had narrative value, they held up witchcraft and the occult as positive ideals, unlike The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Last year the paper argued that Harry, played by atheist, gay-friendly Daniel Radcliffe, was the wrong kind of hero and the stories, although compelling, were full of half truths, offering a view:
Full of deep mistakes and dangerous suggestions.
This time its reviewer praised the special effects in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth Potter film.
Jamie Waylett, who plays school bully Vincent Crabbe
Now we know that this has nothing to do with religion, unless you are a Rastafarian, but we have just learned that another actor in the Harry Potter movie, Jamie Waylett, who plays school bully Vincent Crabbe, pleaded guilty, during a hearing yesterday at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, to growing pot.
Police found eight bags of cannabis and a knife during a search of a car Waylett was riding in. They then searched his mother’s house and found ten marijuana plants.
Waylett pleaded guilty to producing cannabis, which carries a maximum 14-year sentence. His friend John Innis pleaded guilty to drug possession.
Judge Timothy Workman said the pair would be sentenced Tuesday.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
July 17th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Hmmm…So Herr Ratswinger thinks that telling impressionable and immature children fairy stories about the supernatural has a harmful effect on them: have I got that right? Still, at least the Harry Potter stories are only full of "half truths", unlike the bullshit that HIS organization peddles!!
July 17th, 2009 at 9:42 am
The only way the Vatican could ever appear cool would be to say 'First of all we have been bullshitting for centuries, secondly all paedo priests will go to jail, thirdly we will sell up and give the money to the poor.'
I'm not holding my breath.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Why or how does anyone take this bullshit seriously? JK Rowling, unlike our tight assed and very religious Liz Windsor who believes in homeopathy, is famous for paying rock bottom wages, needs 16 serfs to get her breakfast and thinks only religion can cure the troubles of the world, has been generous in donating to charities. As for Papa, I don't see how someone living in a Palace, with a summer place when he gets a touch hot, with servants, fancy dress and money beyond imagining can be considered other than a hypocrite. What about "blessed are the meek, poor, those who don't abuse alter boys etc….?,
July 17th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Breaking News: The Pope has evidently broken his right wrist! No prizes for guessing what the most common suggestion is as to the reason for this – hahaha!!
July 17th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
So "Harry Potter" is full of half truths? Well, how surprising that a piece of fantasy fiction isn't a factual documentary…
July 17th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
So much for the Pope's inFALLability, eh?
July 17th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
How interesting that whenever Catholic commentators give out their reasons for not liking Harry Potter they end up describing their own beliefs down to a t. They are so lacking in self awareness that they cannot see the blatantly obvious parrallels and miss the very important point that J.K. Rowling never went around claiming that her stories were true.
July 17th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I always thought he was a wanker.
July 17th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I agree with you Stonyground. I love Harry Potter and I don't think that it in anyway is against God.
July 17th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
You mean to say that Harry Potter isn`t true then, Stonyground? I`m gutted: I`m sick as a parrot; in fact I`m quite devastated….
July 17th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
I knew there was a shortage of choirboys. But THAT much of a shortage?
July 17th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
But, the Cracker Cult is just magic and wizardry. Perhaps the nutters fear that kids will come to the conclusion that all magic and wizardry is fictional.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
"making clear that good is right"
Well, duh! It's a good job Catholics are here to provide us all with this kind of moral compass.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
If the College of Cardinals could play a game of Quidditch above St Peter's Square it would be very entertaining, and no more ludicrously unbelievable than all that levitation, bilocation and recovering from terminal illness that they profess to believe in.
July 17th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
"God"? But isn't that the name of Harry Potter's imaginary playmate?