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POKEMON EARNS PAPAL BLESSING
By DEVLIN BARRETT

Worried parents may think the Pokémon kiddie-card craze is
the work of the devil, but the pope has reportedly decided
the game is good for children.

The Vatican gave its blessing to the game just as its
popularity is soaring in Italy, where "Pokémon: The First
Movie" opens this week, the Times of London reported
yesterday.

The trading-card and computer game is "full of inventive
imagination," said Sat2000, a satellite TV station run by
the Vatican.

The game did not have "any harmful moral side effects" and
was based on "ties of intense friendship," the station said.

Pokémon pushes its pint-sized players to think creatively
to conquer challenges without violence, said the station,
which is run by the Italian Bishops' Conference.

Sat2000 said the game told simple stories which allowed
children "to enter directly into the story" through role-
playing adventures.

Italian children have shown almost a religious devotion to
Pikachu and Co., spending loads of lire to snap up every
available Pokémon card and sticker.

But officials fear the Mafia will strong-arm its way into
the craze, flooding the streets with counterfeit cards
because the real ones are now almost impossible to find in
stores.

Italian children already have bought 50 million packets of
the cards in just over a month.

The same hysteria earlier this year left American parents
and educators wondering if the game was a sinful temptation.

Some parents complained their children were breaking their
piggy banks to buy cards and that ugly schoolyard fights
were sparked over them.

Italian opinion-makers have generally endorsed the game.

The Catholic Church's public blessing of Pokémon seems
part of an effort by ailing Pope John Paul II to reach out
to young people.

The 79-year-old pontiff also is set to host a pop concert
next month featuring Lou Reed and the Eurythmics, and a
World Youth Festival during the summer.