Nashville Catholic school bans Harry Potter books for containing 'actual' curses and spells

According to a report from The Tennessean, a Catholic school in Nashville, Tennessee has pulled all copies of the immensely popular Harry Potter books from the shelves over concerns they contain real spells and curses used by the fictional Hogwarts students.

St. Edward Catholic School students can no longer check out the books, Rev. Dan Reehil, a pastor at the Roman Catholic parish school wrote to parents in an email.

"These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception. 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," he explained, adding that he had spoken with several experts in exorcism who backed up his decision.

Noting that the Catholic Church does not have an official position on the Harry Potter books, a spokesperson for the diocese said Reehil has the final decision.

"Each pastor has canonical authority to make such decisions for his parish school," Rebecca Hammel, the superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, said in an interview. "He's well within his authority to act in that manner."

She did admit the ban is only in effect at the one school and not across the board.

As the report notes, "The core books, published between 1997 and 2007, were written by J.K. Rowling and spurred a successful movie franchise and a huge following worldwide. Rowling has created additional books and movies within the Harry Potter universe."