The Pope's stance on harry potter

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Everything I said is fact. (though I could see how my burning vatican comment could be offensive, and if it was, I apologise)
Except for:

Which is more of an opinion.

GA

can't speak for judaism, but it depends on what was said about paganism (example - why does judaism get a capital letter, and paganism doesn't? i rarely use them, so nobody gets one, by the way).

quite frankly, most of the pagan crew (of which i am one) couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, with a pixie helper and a set of instructions, let alone take umbrage about a comment on a thread. (all too true, believe me - tearing one's hair out has no effect, trust me).

i can only speak for myself, but i have no problem with anybody's spiritual path, until it turns into "thou shalt/shalt not, and if you do/don't, you will burn in hell (or whatever particular flavour of punishment is meted out), and those who don't do as we say should be sent verily into the fires/frozen wastes (ditto previous parantheses)..." etc., etc. any belief system/religion/spiritual path which is strong enough can take a couple of knocks, without instigating fatwas, surely?

Thank you, Cindy.

I am Catholic and don't have a problem with Harry Potter. This article http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=2376 says the Pope's discussion of HP was as an individual...he certainly wasn't dicussing it as an official stance. The article writer is an active priest and has no problem with HP. He compares HP to Naria, in a favorable fashion. I'd agree with you, GalileoAce, that the current pope is very conservative and could better spend his time on other issues, but its a long step from that to saying "The Church" considers HP evil.

It is true that much evil was done in the Church's name. So was much good. Its not really fair to paint only the dark.

As you may know, Terry Nichol's mother says his Asperger's contributed to him aiding in the bombing the federal building in 1995 and killing 168 people. I don't even agree with that...Even if I did agree with her, I would never EVER broaden it out and say all AS'ers can be conned into bombing buildings. When you take what the pope says, AS AN INDIVIDUAL, and broaden it out and say the church says this or that, it is doing a disservice to other Catholics.

Thanks,
BeeBee

(PS...now, if you would have said the current pope had made some very odd statements, I'd be the first to agree. I'm not a big fan.)

[quote="vetivert"]....(example - why does judaism get a capital letter, and paganism doesn't? i rarely use them, so nobody gets one, by the way).[quote]

Very good question! I do wonder why?!

Now I'll be wondering about that all day...

Err, Im catholic, and i consider myself to be quite free-thinking. In fact i try very hard to be as free-thinking as possible. In fact i beleeve its impossible to be truly cristian and not try to be free-thinking.

All catholics dont nessesserily bow before the pope in order to kiss his rotten townails, and the vast majority of us do NOT condone the things that were done supposedly in the name of cristianity during the spanish iquisition, etc.

Also, i like Harry Potter. Im currently about 400 pages into the 6th book.

Not in the name of christianity, but in the name of the Catholic Church, or the Holy Roman Empire, which was closely allied with the Vatican and the Papal State.

I have absolutley nothing against christianity, I find it's teachings agreeable, and meant to help everyone, not just a select few.

But I shall say no more, lest I create a rift

GA

Argh! I can't belief this knowledge isn't widespread yet, CHRSTIANITY AND CATHOLICISM ARE TWO SEPARATE DISTINCT RELIGIONS! Different Bible, Catholics have pope, cetain teachings are noticably different, etc. I despise hearing the words being interchanged when they're not meant to be interchangeable. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, and I can't stand it.

Harry Potter is also hated by many "fundie" Christians. I find it boring. But there are always peole who can become obsessed, etc. Certain people in this world are susceptible to becoming obesessed, it's a fact of life. I don't care if peole read it, as long as they don't take it too seriously. I'm Christian, not Catholic (because there's a number of differences between the two).

If the Pope says they are evil, then they are evil (at least for the Catholics).

How seriously is someone allowed to take a Harry Potter book? How seriously do you think they will take it? What does it matter if someone is obsessed with Harry Potter? Will "God" send them to "Hell" for it? What if they don't care about that?

An obsession with a Harry Potter book is no more disturbing than an obsession with any other book, including the "Holy Bible", in my opinion.

Tekneek,

I'd really be interested in support for this statement. I'm not a Cannon Law expert but my understanding is that the Pope is to be followed blindly only in very, very rare situations...situations where the Church would be ripped apart if not followed. I beleive this clause has only been used twice in the history of the church.

There is however, more restrictions on disagreeing with the Pope in public. There are four "rules" to be followed...the rules are to be followed when disagreeing with the Pope on offical declarations...I doubt his opinion on a book counts as an "offical declatation" so I'm not following the rules.

Anyway, as interesting as discussion is, I don't know enough Cannon Law, or enough about HP, to make intelligent comments so I think I'll shut up now.

BeeBee

So, if the Pope is just a figurehead that can be generally ignored, what's the point anyway?

When I say obsession, I mean really obsessed. Reading no other books but HP. Reading and re-reading, quoting lines from books in every other sentence. An unhealthy obsession where your world revolves around HP. This is possible of any book, videogame, whatever. There's people out there like this. My brother is with his current favorite videogame, but to a lesser extent. He won't shut up about it, but if asked he well. What I'm saying is that some peole take their obsessions a step too far, changing their name to HP and wearing costumes every day,etc. Again, HP isn't the only thing people do this with. I think I'll stop there.

Ok. Thank you for explaining, because I obviously didn't understand your point before. It looks like we can agree that it is bad regardless of the material involved?

The Pope is not a figurehead. He is a leader...just not, in most cases, an infallable one.

One of the "rules" of disagreement is that one is to consider the Pope's case seriously...he had access to serious thealogians who spend their whole lives investigating and thinking about faith related things. Most of us do not have this access and aren't thealogians ourselves. We are to seriously examine our stance and make sure it is on firm ground, not just a wim we had or wishful thinking on our part.

That's why HP doesn't raise to the "rules" level. Its just not important enough.

I'm not sure that is very clear, Tekneek. I hope it answers your question?

BeeBee