GODLESSNESS and secularism led to Nazism, Stalinism, mass murder and abortion, according to Anthony Fisher, the new bishop 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, 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.''