 On 18 September 1942 , Pius XII received a letter from Monsignor Montini ( future Pope Paul VI ) , saying , " the massacres of the Jews reach frightening proportions and forms . " Later that month , Myron Taylor , U.S. representative to the Vatican , warned Pius that the Vatican 's " moral prestige " was being injured by silence on European atrocities , a warning which was echoed simultaneously by representatives from the United Kingdom , Brazil , Uruguay , Belgium , and Poland . Myron C. Taylor passed a US Government memorandum to Pius on 26 September 1942 , outlining intelligence received from the Jewish Agency for Palestine which said that Jews from across the Nazi Empire were being systematically " butchered " . Taylor asked if the Vatican might have any information which might " tend to confirm the reports " , and if so , what the Pope might be able to do to influence public opinion against the " barbarities " . Cardinal Maglione handed Harold Tittmann a response to the letter on 10 October . The note thanked Washington for passing on the intelligence , and confirmed that reports of severe measures against the Jews had reached the Vatican from other sources , though it had not been possible to " verify their accuracy " . Nevertheless , " every opportunity is being taken by the Holy See , however , to mitigate the suffering of these unfortunate people " . In December 1942 , when Tittmann asked Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione if Pius would issue a proclamation similar to the Allied declaration " German Policy of Extermination of the Jewish Race " , Maglione replied that the Vatican was " unable to denounce publicly particular atrocities . " Pius XII directly explained to Tittman that he could not name the Nazis without at the same time mentioning the Bolsheviks . 
