Americans around the country will be flocking to see the latest Harry
Potter movie this weekend, and some Catholics maintain that the series
exposes children to evil influences.
But Bishop Thomas Paprocki said in a
recent interview that the root cause of dabbling in the occult comes
from being isolated from the faith.
Bishop Paprocki spoke with CNA on Nov. 16 after a recent exorcism training
that was held in Baltimore, ahead of the annual U.S. bishops' fall
assembly.
The Conference on the Liturgical and Pastoral Practice of
Exorcism took place Nov. 12-13.
According to the Springfield, Ill. bishop, who chairs the Bishop's
Committee on Canonical Affairs, the program came about after an
increasing number of inquiries from priests in the U.S.
The conference
was attended by more than 100 bishops and priests.
In the interview, Bishop Paprocki took time to address the idea that
popular books and movies aimed at children and teens, such as the
boy-wizard Harry Potter series or the Twilight saga on vampires, have
encouraged interest in the occult.
“We have to be careful with those kinds of topics for young people,” he said.
He pointed out that the controversial series “could be simply works
of fantasy.” At the same time, he cautioned, “we have to be careful
though as children are very impressionable – do they start seeing truths
in those stories and do they start believing in them?”
“I think a more general hazard in our culture is the fact that people
are not attached to organized religion as much as they used to be,” he
said. “In fact, the word religion comes from a Latin word which means to
be bound together.”
Because “religion binds us together in faith and to Jesus Christ,” he
said, “when people start moving away from organized religion and
churches” they may start “dabbling in their own spirituality.”
“Part of that hazard then is dabbling in the occult and may fall into something truly diabolical such as Satanic rituals.”
Given “our increasingly secular and even atheistic culture,” Bishop
Paprocki said that people being distant from organized religion may be
the reason for an increase in the number of inquiries about exorcisms.
SIC: CNA/USA