GODLESSNESS and secularism led to Nazism, Stalinism, mass murder and abortion, according to Anthony Fisher, the new Archbishop of Parramatta, who has used his inaugural Easter message to launch a scathing attack on atheism, while ignoring the sex abuse scandals besieging the Catholic Church worldwide. God is dead, Archbishop Fisher said, but not in the sense that atheists mean.
Good Friday is the anniversary of Christ's death on the cross, and the Easter festival shows that he lives despite efforts to kill him off, according to the archbishop, who is tipped by many to become the next head of the church in Australia and leads the largest Catholic diocese in the country.
''Last century we tried godlessness on a grand scale and the effects were devastating,'' he said.
''Nazism, Stalinism, Pol-Pottery, mass murder and broken relationships: all promoted by state-imposed atheism or culture-insinuated secularism.''
It was an illusion to think we could live a better life without God, he said, although he acknowledged that the ''violence, abuse and un-lovingness'' of many believers through the ages had driven some people away from the church.
Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, made oblique mention of the recent scandals enveloping the Catholic Church.
He used his Easter message to tell the faithful that despite Christianity's faults, it underpins our entire way of life.
''We often hear about Christian failures to live up to Christian standards - and there have been too many scandals and too many victims,'' Cardinal Pell wrote.
''But the great majority of Christians continue to follow the commandments of love through regular service, tolerance, forgiveness and community building.''
Cardinal Pell also attacked atheism, by giving thanks for church-based community organisations, and noting that ''we find no community services sponsored by the atheists''.
''We thank God for our Christian traditions and the works they inspire,'' he said. ''They have helped make Australia what it is.''
Neither Archbishop Fisher or Cardinal Pell made any direct reference to the latest Catholic sex abuse scandals in which Pope Benedict XVI has been implicated.
Before World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008, Archbishop Fisher was castigated for remarks he made about the case of a priest who raped two girls.
He told a news conference he wished people would focus on the positivity of World Youth Day ''rather than dwelling crankily, as a few people are doing, on old wounds''.
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