Question from Ingrid Botha on 4/16/2008:
Dear Father
We are the parents of three young children, whom we have placed in a Catholic school. As Catholic parents their spiritual welfare is of utmost importance, and we are trying really hard at home to raise them as good, devout Catholics. We thought that placing them in a Catholic school would also help towards developing them as these devout Catholic souls, and we at least thought that they would be protected against bad or evil publications.
It is plainly obvious that the Harry Potter books are against the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and it doesn't take much common sense to figure out that the books' are truly evil. We have been given the gift of these three beautiful children to protect and cherish against all odds, and ultimately to lead them to God. We have also told them never to read the Harry Potter books as it is all against God and what He teaches.
Now it has come to our attention that the Harry Potter books and dvd's are being used in their school. We have approached the school's head master and the priest regarding this, and both are of the opinion that there is nothing wrong with the books and therefore the books and dvd's will remain in the school. We have even gently given the school a box full of EWTN's children's dvd's which we ordered from your catalogue in hope that they would discard of the Harry Potter publications, and use the dvd's as some form of replacement. It did not work, and to date the dvd's have not been used in the school. It seems so strange that there is such an obsession with keeping the books in the school regardless of better Catholic educational material presented to it. It makes a person so despondent to know that regardless of how much you try to protect your children from bad publications, they could be exposed to it at a very young age in school, not to mention all the other school children who are being exposed to it. It is heart breaking to think that a Catholic school would feed such publications to their children, and young children at that.
Unfortunately too many people are of the opinion that the Harry Potter books are harmless, just like too many people are of the opinion that other sins like abortion and fornication are are fine. The majority opinion is not always the correct opinion, and we really wish that somebody great in the church would now reveal the truth about the terrible evil of these books, and the harm that is being afflicted on the souls of our children. For years now there has been too much debate on whether or not the Harry Potter books are evil or not. When is somebody going to turn to the very simple answers given in the Catechism of the Catholic Church on magic and the occult. We need the protection of our priests and bishops in this regard.
Can you please help us and our children.
Yours faithfully Ingrid and Willem Botha
Answer by Fr. Jay Toborowsky on 4/18/2008:
If you feel strongly about this (which you obviously do), and you're not getting an adequate response from the school's headmaster and chaplain, your next step would be to to contact your diocese's education office. That would be the next step up on the way to the bishop, who has ultimate jurisdiction here.
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