Affect Blog

True to form, the Vatican has recently demonstrated once again how in touch it is with reality and its disciples by condemning the new Twilight movie ‘New Moon’ as existing within a ‘deviant moral vacuum’.This comes not that long after the Vatican’s equally insightful and cogent criticism of R.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books for - apparently - encouraging heathen practices such witchcraft and wizardry.

For the moment, let us put aside what this might tell us about the Pope’s seeming insecurity about the solidity of his faith, and move onto quite how damaging such a stance is.

The killing and maiming of children throughout present day Africa for being witches is an increasingly well documented and widespread problem that blights the lives of thousands of people even in a world in which one would have hoped such vile and illogical practices had been banished.

And yet, unconscionably, the Vatican has determined to spend more time condemning children’s literature than addressing the very real and grave problems occurring within Christian communities on the sub-continent. Even worse, its outrage at books and films such as Harry Potter and Twilight actively reinforces and validates such prejudices and practices for any that would read them. Without further research, it would be hard at this point to define empirically the causal links between these two occurrences. However, such over-zealous criticism of essentially harmless fantasy on the one hand, and the turning of a blind eye to an extremely harmful reality on the other should be a source of profound shame for Vatican City.

If ‘New Moon’ is a deviant moral vacuum, what then can we say of the Catholic Church’s leadership?