Home »  Browse News Briefs »  Massachusetts Pastor Orders Harry Potter Books Removed From Catholic School

"We must allow our children the space to discover how to make correct moral choices on their own," the parents wrote. "While we recognize that some fear that Harry Potter books may lead to the practice of Wicca and Satanism, we respectfully disagree that such fears warrant the removal of reading material from the school library."

Barker contends that parents and children have every right to read the Potter series, of which the seventh and final instalment "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows" came out last summer. He suggested they check them out of the public library or get them at the bookstore but maintained they have no place in a Catholic school.

"I’m not preventing people from buying the books," Barker said. "I’m not marching down to the public library demanding that they burn the books. I'm protecting from what could be a danger to some people. Evil is very seductive."

Barker classifies Wicca, the official name for the practice of witchcraft, as evil, along with fortune-telling using Tarot cards, Ouija boards and other tools of mysticism.

And while Barker said he knows the Rowling series is fantasy fiction, he cited Internet rumblings of Wicca membership on the rise because the Potter books "glorify" sorcery — though he admitted he hadn't seen any solid statistics or studies on the subject.

Most students who read and enjoy Rowling's tales probably won't get caught up in sorcery, Barker said. But a few might — and that's what he fears.

"If there's a possibility for one getting involved, it's good to protect that one," he said.

A spokeswoman for Scholastic, which publishes the Harry Potter series under its imprint Arthur A. Levine Books, declined to comment. Rowling and her agent were not immediately available.