Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher urges end to cancel culture in Easter message

Archbishop ditches religious imagery for protest footage in his annual address as he calls for an end to hostilities.

Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher. Picture: AAP

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney will use his Easter message to warn against intolerance, division and cancel culture, and will break convention by using vision of anti-Catholic protesters instead of religious ­imagery in his annual video address.

Anthony Fisher is calling for an end to hostilities amid deep ­social divisions just weeks after protesters clashed outside a church in southwest Sydney and after hundreds of anti-Catholic demonstrators descended on the funeral of ­George Pell in ­February.

Archbishop Fisher said contemporary society felt like not much had changed since the first Good Friday when, according to the Bible, Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross.

“Our politics are often polarised and social media vicious, the language is extreme, and it’s all or nothing,” he said. “We can feel that not much has changed since that first Good Friday.

“Angry mobs still demand crucifixion or cancellation.

“There seems to be no room for debate, for listening, persuading, and being persuaded, for the good kind of compromise.

“The language of tolerance and ‘live and let live’ has been replaced by totalising ideologies and loyalty groups.

“It is into these deep divisions that the Easter message must be spoken anew.”

Three people were charged lin March after hundreds of protesters surrounded LGBTQI+ ­demonstrators at St Michael’s Church.

The church was hosting a forum featuring One Nation leader Mark Latham discussing parental rights in the context of gender dysphoria and other topics including proposed government changes that may impact Catholic schools. Parish priest Andrew Benton later told the Catholic Weekly he would not have let the event, which he said was apolitical, go ahead if he knew it would descend into chaos.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney also condemned the violence as unacceptable and incompatible with the gospel.

An abortion rights activist is restrained by police as members of the Catholic Church rally outside St. Mary’s Cathedral during a à Day of the Unborn Child gathering on March 26 in Sydney.

The archbishop’s Easter message usually contains traditional religious iconography but this year will feature vision of protesters at the funeral of Cardinal Pell, who was cleared of child sex abuse offences.

Archbishop Fisher said Easter was a season of contradictions and Jesus had famously appealed for forgiveness on behalf of the ­ignorance of his persecutors who had nailed him to the cross.

“He counselled them against storing grievances and counting up what they were owed,” he said.

“If they wanted to be children of the God who makes the rain fall on the good and bad alike, they had to stop dividing humanity into allies and foes. Everyone is either our friend already or a potential friend. And we want peace with them all. Such Easter talk is as countercultural as ever.”

Archbishop Fisher said ceasing hostilities should not cost the truth but urged believers to show respect and goodwill towards people with whom they disagreed and urged people to remember that love overcomes everything.

“Amor vincit omnia: love overcomes everything. That is an authentic love overcomes, a self-sacrificing love, not a self-­indulgent love,” he said.