We are neither angry nor afraid

So, now the Pope joins the list of those who attribute their own problems to others:

Only this can free us from being afraid of God - which is ultimately at the root of modern atheism.

Wrong. By definition, wrong. As my high-school chemistry used to say, "not just wrong: very wrong indeed."

Or, as Wolfgang Pauli remarked of something else, "it's not even wrong."

Atheists do not believe that God even exists. (Some believe that God does not exist. Same thing for this post.)

If something does not exist, how can you be afraid of it?

And, for that matter, how can you hate it?

Atheists may very well be afraid of, or hate, the Church, or churches, or the religious, or the Pope... those things exist and often enough threaten us. But God?

Nope. Sorry. It's not God - it's you.

Updated 19 Sep to provide a source link for the quote (Catholic World News, in case anyone is wondering)