"No Community Services Sponsored By The Atheists''

As the whole article makes clear, The Sydney Morning Herald is furious that Bishop Anthony Fisher OP and Cardinal Pell want to talk about anything other than that prescribed by the anti-Catholic media:

God is dead, Bishop 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.''