The historical reputation of Pope Pius XII and his role in the Second World War have been disputed with passionate and often angry conviction since almost the time of his death.

This article about the history and future of Christian moral truth was originally published in Christianity and Crisis on December 28th, 1942. Contributor Barbara Ward details the history of Christian moral law, originally developed in the philosophical depths of the natural law tradition, all the way to its fracturing, resulting in the contemporaneous “will to power” found in Nazism. She councils Christians globally to recover this tradition and bring it to bear on the world in her day.

There was an interesting exchange of articles recently about Pope Pius XII and Finnish WWII leader Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil…