| Written by Michael Swan, The Catholic Register,
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 TORONTO - An Ontario Catholic school board has pulled The Golden Compass and other His Dark Materials novels by outspoken atheist Philip Pullman from school library shelves in response to a U.S.-inspired campaign against both the books and the movie version of The Golden Compass, which opens across Canada Dec. 7.
“We have to be able to take a look at it, take a look at the materials and review them on the basis of their content to see whether or not it is appropriate,” said Halton Catholic District School Board trustee Fr. David Whilhelm. “That’s why there is a policy.”
Whilhelm is one of the trustees assigned to read The Golden Compass and decide whether it should be available in school libraries. For now the book has been removed from shelves, but is still available to students who ask for it.
Halton was the first board to pull the books on the basis of a complaint. Most Catholic school boards in Ontario have a policy which mandates a review of school materials if there is a complaint.
Neither the church nor the Catholic school board are proposing to ban the controversial children’s fantasy novels, said Wilhelm.
“Anybody is entitled to read any book they want. This book will be available in the usual outlets for people who are interested in reading it,” he said. “The real issue is, is it appropriate to have it in a Catholic school library?”
Pullman told The Washington Post in 2001 his books were an attempt to “undermine the basis of Christian belief.” In a 2003 interview Pullman said, “My books are about killing God.”
Boston University Catholic theologian Donna Frietas says the books should not be judged based on a couple of comments from the author.
“The universe of His Dark Materials is permeated by a God in love with creation, who watches out for the meekest of all beings — the poor, the marginalized, and the lost,” Freitas wrote in a Nov. 25 essay for The Boston Globe.
“It is a God who yearns to be loved through our respect for the body, the Earth, and through our lives in the here and now. This is a rejection of the more classical notion of a detached, transcendent God, but I am a Catholic theologian and reading this fantasy trilogy enhanced my sense of the divine, of virtue, of the soul, of my faith in God.”
Bill Donohue, president of the American Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, launched a co-ordinated campaign against the books and movie Oct. 9, mailing hundreds of pamphlets to Catholic newspapers and institutions across the United States and Canada. Donohue objects to the trilogy’s story line, in which the heroes of the tale muster a revolution against a secretive and oppressive conspiracy called “the Magisterium.”
The Halton Catholic board’s policy on reviewing materials makes no distinction between individual parent complaints and organized campaigns, said Wilhelm.
“The board is always open to organized campaigns,” he said. “There’s people out there in both camps, left and right, who sometimes have concerns about things.”
The Golden Compass was published in 1995 and won the Carnegie Medal for outstanding children’s literature in the United States. It was followed by The Subtle Knife in 1997. The final instalment, The Amber Spyglass, was published in 2000 and became the first children’s book to win the prestigious Whitbread Prize. The series has sold 12 million copies worldwide.
Just because a book or an author holds a position contrary to Catholic teaching doesn’t mean Catholic students should never read it, Wilhelm told The Catholic Register.
“I think the teachers in our system are quite capable of helping the children to understand — ‘well, wait a minute now, that’s not what we believe.’ ”
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