Christianity looks at the sacrament of the present moment. A Christian must be conscious of the present moment because that is when God expresses His will… not in the past nor in the futre, generally speaking. When a culture or a civilization decays, its people engages in fantasies, Gilbert K. Chesterton noticed. And our age, with its Star Wars, Matrix and witch-craft falls under the realm of fantasy. Chesterton describes pornography as the height of fantasy and indicative of the decadence of an era… because pornography is purely in the realm of fantasy.
Any topic that falls under the category of fantasy is contrary to the very spirit of Christianity or Catholicism. Of course, there is a difference between fantasy and fairy tale. But it seems that fairy tales only existed some time ago. Modern writers find it difficult to write fairy tales because one has to be a child again to do so. We don’t see new fairy tales anymore. What we see is fantasy which is both harmful and contrary to the spirit of Catholicism that emphasizes the “sacrament of the present moment. “
This sacrament forces one to be realistic because he must see the totality of the present moment. With such an attitude he cannot deny but must face reality. He cannot day dream. When Pope Benedict mentioned the dictatorship of relativism as one of the great evils of our times, he took this from the writing of St. Paul, who mentioned, in fact, the evil signs of the coming times. Paul mentioned the refusal to accpet sound doctrine, following one’s desire (which is the dictatorship of relativism) and insatiable desire for what is new and unknown. These three defects go hand in hand. And our age of Fantasy would fall under the third.
Just as the sacrament of the present moment trains a mind to be realistic always, entertainning fantasy is a sign of neurosis.