Talk about a change of heart. Only a few years ago the Pope declared that Harry Potter was, “”a subtle seduction, which has deeply unnoticed and direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity”. However the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, yesterday praised Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince for its treatment of teen romance and the way it deals with good needing to prevail over evil.
The paper has previously labelled Potter the “wrong model of a hero”, sharing the concerns of the Pope that the books and films introduce children to witchcraft in a way that makes it seem alright, rather than, as they contend, the world of the devil.
However it might be wrong to read to much into the newspaper’s review as it’s the same publication that published a middling review of The Da Vinci Code, basically saying uptight Catholics needed to chilll out about it. That review was then removed and effectively banned after pressure from high-ranking clergy, who seem to believe Dan Brown is about as close to the anti-christ as we have at the moment. So while the newspaper might not mind Harry Potter, that doesn’t mean the Pope’s changed his mind.