A Catholic parish in western Germany is facing opposition after promoting what it has described as a “Harry Potter ecumenical service” to be held inside a consecrated church later this month, prompting a conservative Catholic group to launch a campaign calling for the event to be cancelled.
The event is scheduled for 28 February at 5pm at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Herne and has been advertised online as an ecumenical service drawing on imagery from the popular Harry Potter book series. Promotional material circulated by the parish invites “fans and Hogwarts newcomers” to gather for an evening “among candles, light and darkness” in which “hope takes shape”, with references to butterbeer, house colours and “magical attire” alongside the use of the church’s entrance hall and nave.
The advertisement states that the doors of the “Great Hall” will be opened for the evening and encourages attendees to dress in costume, while assuring them that “Muggle clothing is also permitted”. The parish website describes the gathering as beginning with a “magical prelude” inside the church building before continuing with the service itself.
The plans have drawn sharp criticism from the conservative Catholic outlet Christkönigtum, which has launched an online campaign urging the local diocese to intervene. The petition argues that the use of “magical occult motifs” within a consecrated church constitutes a desecration of sacred space and causes scandal to the faithful. It calls for the event to be halted immediately.
The diocese has not issued a public statement on the matter, and no official intervention has yet been announced. The parish did not respond to phone calls asking for comment beyond the promotional description already published online.
The Holy See has never taken an official position on the novels, but a range of contrasting views have been expressed by senior Church figures.
In 2003, Fr Peter Fleetwood, then an official of the Pontifical Council for Culture, spoke positively about the series when asked whether its depiction of magic should be grouped with New Age practices criticised by the Vatican. “If I have understood well the intentions of Harry Potter’s author, they help children to see the difference between good and evil,” he said, adding that the author “is Christian by conviction, is Christian in her mode of living, even in her way of writing.” His remarks were widely reported at the time as an implicit Vatican endorsement, though no formal approval was ever issued.
Other voices were far more critical. Fr Gabriele Amorth, for many years the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, warned that “behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil”.
Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, expressed concern in two private letters written in 2003, stating that the novels contained “subtle seductions” which “deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly”.
The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano reflected this division in a 2008 full-page discussion of the phenomenon. One article argued that the stories conveyed lessons about love and self-giving, while another warned that they promoted witchcraft as a positive force and embodied “the old Gnostic temptation of confusing salvation and truth with a secret knowledge”. The paper later offered a more favourable assessment of one of the film adaptations, noting that it drew a clear moral line between good and evil and rejected the pursuit of immortality at any cost.
Support for the series has also come from senior Church figures elsewhere. Cardinal George Pell, then Archbishop of Sydney, wrote that the books displayed values “deeply compatible with Christianity” and praised them as “a good yarn” containing “a good dose of moral truth”.
The controversy forms part of a wider pattern within the German Church. The event reflects a permissive culture fostered by the Synodal Way and a broader progressive approach that has normalised experimental uses of sacred space. The willingness to host a themed service drawing on fictional magic has been part of a longer trajectory in parts of Europe since the promulgation of the post-conciliar liturgical reforms.
The issue at stake is less about Harry Potter itself, even though there are grievances, than an ecclesial problem of accommodating such a service within a church building. The event risks trivialising and desecrating what Catholics believe to be a consecrated space set apart exclusively for divine worship.
