From Mrs. Colleen Breslin re Harry Potter.

Thank God, there is finally direction from a Catholic authority on the satanic content of the Harry Potter book series, namely Fr. Gabriele Amorth, Rome's official exorcist (see C.I., Letters, March, 2002, p.7). It is long overdue but unfortunately too late for many Catholic school children.

I have been actively battling against the reading and promotion of this series in my son's Catholic school since September 2000. I became aware of the dangers of Harry Potter books through local newspaper articles covering the Evangelical and Protestant efforts to have the books banned from the public school system. I recognized the books' intrinsic evil and warned my eleven-year old son not to read them. I was shocked when he told me that his teacher had started reading to his class from them each day.

I quickly wrote a letter of protest to the school principal, but my concerns fell on deaf ears and blind eyes. She told me the books were great literature and that she listened to tapes of the books on her way into work each day.

The particular danger of the Harry Potter series is that it fooled people who should have known better, should have discerned the evil behind it. The power of popular culture through the tool of mass media is irresistible. I have been trying to warn and educate my family and friends about these books, but rarely is anyone concerned. People just won't listen. In the early nineties it was the horror stories published for children called Goosebumps that were the rage in our schools and in our homes. What's coming down the pipes next?

We need to put into place in our Catholic school boards a more effective means of discerning the literature that is brought into and promoted in our school system from a Catholic perspective.

Greenbank, ON