"Harry Potter and the Exorcist"

The pope's senior exorcist believes that Harry Potter is the "prince of evil". From this article: ""Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil," he told Vatican Radio." He also said that "Adolf Hitler and Russian leader Joseph Stalin were possessed by the devil, and that Pope Pius XII once tried to perform a long-distance exorcism on Hitler." Do read.

So out of all the evil that is spread around this world, the head of one of the world's most popular religions is singling out Harry Potter, a fictional character, who lives in a fictional world and has fictional adventures.

Well, there are many things weird about this article. The first weird thing is that the Vatican apparently has exorcists, and apparently it has more than one exorcists, since the gentleman mentioned here is called the senior. Why does the Vatican need exorcists, in plural? Are they exorcising demons and stuff from all over the world? Then how come we never get to hear of these exorcisms in the news? How come most of our knowledge on this topic comes from a movie where a girl with a spinning head spews green vomit? If there are so many exorcisms happening around the world, then it would be the easiest thing to film a few of them, and sell them on DVD, to make piles of money! And to show those doubting atheists that they mean business!

OK next, what I don't understand is, what does the exorcist mean when he says that our dear Harry hides the signature of the prince of darkness? Does he mean that Harry Potter himself is possessed by the devil? Surely not? Then does he mean that the author, the incomparable Ms. Rowling, is the one possessed? In that case, does he mean to exorcise her (long-distance or close up) of her devils? Noooooooooooooo!!!!! This must be prevented at all costs! If her devils are exorcised, then we will never get to read Book 7!!!

What is the wierdest, or saddest, I suppose, is that the Vatican attributes human evil to demons, absolving Hitler and Stalin of all their crimes by simply saying "the devil made me do it!" What we need in this world is to realise that evil does not come from some underworld but from within us. Instead of having religious leaders that can be looked up to for guidance in times of moral confusion, we have people who talk of white and black magic both being from the devil in one breath, and in the next breath they try and prove magical "miracles" to canonize Mother Teresa, who would directly be declared a saint by any number of people whose lives she has touched.

1 comment:

Aparna said...

Practical wisdom is often hindered by clouds of rituals and rites, which renders people who are caught up in all these rules, regulations and restrictions (oh yeah, I love the alliteration) to think 'out of the box', to use the modern management jargon.
So, when you say so simply that 'evil does not come from some underworld but from within us', it will perhaps take the Vatican ages to think that out, when they have overcome the excess baggage of their pre-conceived ideas about devil, evil and exorcism.
On Harry, well, I always thought 'bad was sexy' ;). Used to read those books because I thought they propagate simple good vs bad ideology, but this comment about Harry being evil is slowly turning me on....ooooooh