Just in time for the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Reuters is reporting that a book by an anti-Harry Potter zealot suggest that Pope Benedict is wary of J.K Rowling’s tales of magic:

“It is good that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because these are subtle seductions which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly,” Benedict wrote, according to the excerpt.

Now the interesting thing about this story is not that the Pope is leery of wizards and magic. Let’s be honest, what does it matter that the series does not earn a papal nod of approval? If you’re a Harry Potter fan you’re going to read the book and if not, then you now have more reason to clutch a rosary while protesting its publication. No, what’s truly interesting about this story is that the Pope is on vacation:

A Vatican official was not immediately able to comment on the remarks attributed to Benedict, who is currently on holiday in the Alps.

A vacation in the Alps? Seriously, I never knew Popes could go on vacation. Perhaps I’m a bit dissapointed. Afterall, I’ve always thought of the papacy as one of the last vestiges of a devout age where men were men and choir boys were nervous. It just seems like the most hallowed religous office in the western world is so much less hardcore since discovering that the Pope gets time off.

I suppose I should be thankful that he’s only vacationing in the somewhat austere environment of the Alps, but I still think that the damage has been done. The thought of Pope Benedict hitting the beaches in Maui or buggin’ out in Ibiza no longer seems to be an unimaginably absurd scene from a Mel Brooks movie.