The Custodian of the Natural Law

Pius XII was a good and holy man. He was a heroic defender and protector of Jews during World War II. The evidence for this truth is massive, the testimonies are many, the facts are unchangeable. All efforts to show the opposite have been conclusively refuted. The question is not whether Pope Pius XII acted heroically during World War II and was instrumental in saving hundreds of thousands of Jews from Nazi extermination. The question is not whether libels and slanders against this good and holy man can be refuted. [They certainly can!] The overwhelming question that has to be addressed it this: Why is this good man being defamed? Who are those who devote themselves to besmirching the reputation of Pius XII? What are they really after? What is their fundamental objective?
The Didache taught that there are two paths, one of light, the other of darkness. John Paul II has spoken of a Culture of Death and a Culture of Life. During World War II, Pius XII courageously walked the path of light. He stood up against the Culture of Death and Defended the Culture of Life. The Nazis he condemned are no more. Their totalitarian twin, the Communists, have withered away as the state was supposed to. But the Culture of Death is still among us, stronger than before. Those who opposed Hitler now occupy countries which have espoused under other names his genetic atrocities. The moral relativism and nihilism of the West, which have permitted the Culture of Death to flourish among us, recognizes its main enemy. That enemy is the Catholic Church. For such foes, Pius XII is merely a target of opportunity. Their aim is the natural law which, as Pius emphasized from the beginning of the war, was violated by the Nazi racist policies. The Culture of Death is an equally systematic assault on the natural law of which the Catholic Church is the chief custodian. Hence the libel and defamation of the Church.

-Ralph McInerny, The Defamation of Pius XII (South Bend, Indiana: St. Augustine's Press, 2001) xi-xii. Emphasis (bold)added.

Dear Friends,
Dr. McInerny speaks truly! We want to look at the big picture. Pope Pius XII has been defamed because--as Supreme Pontiff and Teacher of the one true Church--he defended the natural law, "of which the Catholic Church is the chief custodian". So this is a burning issue that continues even--or rather especially--into our own day, Anno Domini 2010. Just look at what's happening in the "Health Care debate" in the highest levels of government of the United States of America! Some people are working very hard to have abortion funding written into this proposed law of the land. They also are resistant to any efforts to have conscience clauses inserted into the bill, clauses that would protect medical personnel who still have a well-formed conscience, that is, who still want to follow the natural law.
And there has been a continuum of Church defense of the natural law. After Pope Pius XII, Pope Paul VI defended the natural law; indeed, his argument in Humanae Vitae was a strong natural law argument. John Paul II, Paul VI's nearly immediate successor, defended nearly every aspect of the natural law: the family, the right to life, etc. And Benedict XVI continues to defend the natural law.
Empires come and go, but the Catholic Church, the custodian of the natural law, will endure until the end of time, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it! (Mt. 16:18)