Harry Potter gets thumbs up from Vatican – should we care?
July 14, 2009 by Jane Boursaw
For anyone who’s paying attention, the Vatican has changed its tune on Harry Potter. Just a mere four years ago, the wizard movies were condemned by the Pope as a corrupter of children, ”a subtle seduction, which has deeply unnoticed and direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity.” Harsh!
But his Holiness has softened a bit on the Hogwarts clan. Yesterday, the Vatican’s official newspaper praised the latest movie, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” noting that it makes clear that good must prevail over evil. It also gives a big thumbs up on the film’s treatment of adolescent passion.
The article in L’Osservatore Romano also notes that this is the best adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s novels. The paper once said Harry Potter was the "wrong model of a hero," and lumped the books in with two other British fantasies, C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” and J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.”
What’s your take on this? Think the Vatican has it right? Or should we even care what they think?
Image: TM and (c) 2009 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc; Source: The Guardian
