2007 Update
Well, I'm reviving this old thread because either the new Pope has different views to the old one, or else the Vatican newspaper doesn't speak for the Vatican.
This news today....
JK Rowling's Harry Potter condemned in Vatican newspaper - Telegraph
The Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, has called the teenage boy wizard “the wrong kind of hero”.
Under the headline 'The double face of Harry Potter’, the lengthy article concludes: “Despite the values that we come across in the narration, at the base of this story, witchcraft is proposed as a positive ideal."
Since my original post in 2001 I've also questioned my own Christian convictions, so like the Vatican don't quote me on what I posted there
I think the Catholic church is in serious crisis if:
1) It thinks this is an important problem either in the world, or as regards children
2) It cannot agree and stick to a view on this in so short a space of time
If Harry Potter is really so bad, then we should also ban Brothers Grimm and Disney fairy-tales.
It has also been pointed out before how they celebrate Christmas at Hogwarts.
And finally, if young children
can be so easily influenced, why is it acceptable for the Church to indoctrinate them with it's own fairy-tales.