Nashville Catholic school pulls ‘Harry Potter’ books over ‘curses and spells’

St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville, Tenn., has removed the internationally bestselling “Harry Potter” book series from its library, citing the depiction of “curses and spells.”

The Rev. Dan Reehil, a pastor at the Roman Catholic parish school, told The Tennessean newspaper that the seven-book series had been removed from the school library.

{mosads}”These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception, Reehil said in a statement to the paper. “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.”

The decision to pull the massively popular J.K. Rowling-penned series, which has spawned 10 blockbuster movies, was made after Reehill said he consulted with several exorcists in the U.S. and Rome.

Rebecca Hammel, the superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, told the outlet that the Catholic Church does not have an official position on the Harry Potter books, which tell the story of a boy wizard and his friends at their wizardry boarding school.

For more than 20 years since the first book was published, the boy wizard who faces off against the evil dark wizard Lord Voldemort has faced criticism that it gloried witchcraft and the occult.

The American Library Association in 2006 named the “Harry Potter” series as the most challenged books of the 21st Century. 

Hammel said the school’s pastor “has canonical authority to make such decisions for his parish school.”

“He’s well within his authority to act in that manner,” Hammel continued, adding that the series is still on the shelves at other school libraries in the Nashville diocese.

She said that parents are the ultimate judges for what media thy determine to be appropriate for their children.

“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,” the superintendent said.