Priests at a Catholic parish in northern Poland have burned books, including the "Harry Potter" series, and other items that their owners said had evil forces.

Images from the burning at Gdansk's Mother of Church parish on Sunday were posted on Facebook by a Catholic foundation that uses unconventional ways of religious work.

In the pictures, flames are consuming an African wooden mask, figurines of elephants and books on personality and magic, as well as those by J.K. Rowling, all bought in by parishioners. A priest and altar boys are watching the book burning.

The foundation said the book burning was intended to alert parishioners to bad influences that it says comes from magic and the occult.

Comments under the post condemned the book burning, recalling that also happened in Nazi Germany before World War II.