Catholic School Removes Harry Potter Books From Library After Exorcists Warn About “Evil Spirits”

A Nashville Catholic school has removed #HarryPotter books from its library because it claims the spells in the books conjure evil spirits.

Harry Potter might have come back to Hogwarts, but it doesn’t look like it will be returning to the library of St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville. The Roman Catholic parish school has removed all seven volumes of #JKRowlings’ hit series from its library, claiming its content is “evil.”

The school’s pastor, Rev. Dan Reehil, explained in an email that he spoke with several exorcists in the United States and in Rome before making the decision. Every consultant advised having the books thrown out. “These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception,” Reehil wrote, according to the Nashville Tennessean. “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.”

Rebecca Hammel, the superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, told the Nashville Tennessean that Reehil has the last say on whether the books stay or go. “Each pastor has canonical authority to make such decisions for his parish school,” Hammel said. “He’s well within his authority to act in that manner.”

Hammel added that other schools in the diocese have kept the books and that parents are children’s primary teachers.“Should parents deem that this or any other media to be appropriate we would hope that they would just guide their sons and daughters to understand the content through the lens of our faith,” Hammel said. “We really don’t get into censorship in such selections other than making sure that what we put in our school libraries is age-appropriate materials for our classrooms.”

Harry Potter flew into our childhoods for the first time in 1997, and from that, several successful books were birthed. What was your favorite book?