A Catholic school in Nashville, Tennessee will not be the home to any of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. The school states the spells in the novels “risk conjuring evil spirits.”
St. Edward Catholic School is a Roman Catholic parish school that will forbid the books from being borrowed stating the spells in the book are actually real.
Reverend Dan Reehil, the pastor of the school, sent an email to The Tennessean about the books, stating exorcisms he consulted in both the United States and Rome have assisted in the decision he made.
“These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception. The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text,” Reehil wrote.
School superintended Rebecca Hammel for the Catholic Diocese of Nashville states there is no specific position toward the books in the proper franchise, however, reveals Pastor Reehil is acting within his own authority.
“Each pastor has canonical authority to make such decisions for his parish school. “He’s well within his authority to act in that manner,” Hammel said.
The books will not make the transition from the old library to the new one in the school.
“I know that in the process they were going through and kind of weeding out some of the content in hopes of sprucing it up and improving the circulation,” Hammel added.
