It has recently been reported that Catholic Priests in Poland burned books and other items that had relations to magic, which they consider to be sacrilegious. Some of the items they burned include the Harry Potter series, a Hindu religious figure and a Hello Kitty umbrella. During this burning ceremony, three priests carried baskets of items they found unholy outside to the fire pit. They then began to burn these items and both themselves and the alter boys stayed to watch as the flames enveloped these items.

The foundation states that the reason this burning took place was to “alert parishioners to bad influences that it says comes from magic and the occult.” Apparently, people from the church were asked to bring items with “negative energy or superstitious beliefs.”

It seems hard to imagine that a church in the 21st century would go as far as having a book burning to release the negativity from the items and, in turn, from those who previously owned them.

It is almost like we are back in the 1690’s when people were thought to be witches and were burned at the stake due to an assumption they contained unholy powers. It is now understood that those who lived back then and did those things were obviously in the wrong, but then, it was normal.

Has anyone experienced Harry Potter books fly across the room or spontaneously burst into flame and burn one’s house down? Did the Hello Kitty umbrella fly away on its own on a windless day and then return to you? I can bet the answer to those are no. There is no reason these items should have been burned. 

The other likely explanation for why these priests decided to burn “unholy” objects now is that they picked up Fahrenheit 451 from their local library and became convinced that all things containing “bad energy” should be burned. This was their first trial on their road to releasing all negative energy from objects held by their parishioners.

I am not stating that they are completely in the wrong. There is a small chance that burning these items has helped those who previously owned them.

However, there is a larger chance that those who are a member of this particular church are now carrying extra fear for items that carry bad influences or have “negative energy.” This act was unnecessary and ludicrous. One can only hope acts like this are not to be repeated in the future.