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Translated from Italian to English using DeepL Translator

To His Eminence P. D. Basil, Bishop of Velletri, Cardinal Pompilj's Vicar General in the City.

To you, Our Vicar in this city of Rome, which is both the centre of Christendom and Our episcopal See, We must address a few words regarding the ‘First National Women’s Athletics Competition
“Giovani Italiane”’, which is to take place here on the 4th, 5th and 6th of this month, just as we enter the month that is particularly sacred to Mary. We do so with great sorrow; but after having
given it much thought and prayer, we feel that, in doing so, we are fulfilling a sacred duty of the apostolic ministry entrusted to us by that supreme Shepherd and Lord of souls who will judge us: the duty of the Bishop of Rome, who is and always will be the successor of St Peter, the duty of the Bishop of Bishops and of the faithful throughout the world. In both these capacities, Our words can, alas,
only be ones of deploration.

The Bishop of Rome cannot but deplore the fact that here in the holy city of Catholicism, after twenty centuries of Christianity, sensitivity and attention to the delicate considerations due to young
women and girls have proved weaker than in pagan Rome, which, though it had sunk to such a low level of moral decay, having adopted from conquered Greece public games and gymnastic and
athletic competitions, for reasons of physical and moral order based on pure common sense, excluded young women from them—as indeed they were also excluded in many cities of Greece itself, which was all the more corrupt. There is really no need to set out or even briefly recall those reasons: they have already been set out many times: fathers, mothers and teachers, who are not prejudiced or misled by exaggerated and false theories or by motives entirely unrelated to sound and wholesome pedagogy, intuit and feel them as a matter of natural instinct; they appreciate and savour the supernatural beauty and preciousness of those reasons, as many as are guided and enlightened by that sensus Christi, which is like the soul of the Christian soul. For this reason, we too say with the Prophet (Isa. 62:1): ‘For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.’

The Bishop of Bishops and of the faithful throughout the world can never forget—least of all in circuмstances such as these—that he is the first among the guardians appointed by God to the New Jerusalem and of whom it is written (Isaiah 62:6) that day and night, for ever they shall not be silent: Tota die et tota nocte in perpetuum non tacebunt. Indeed, the faithful throughout the world could not help but feel, to say the least, confused and bewildered, if they were to find Us entirely silent, whilst unfolding before Our very eyes is that very thing against which, wherever it has occurred—even in days not so long past—the Sacred Shepherds, approved and encouraged by Us, have raised their voices. And these same Sacred Shepherds and Venerable Brothers of Ours might, in Our silence, find a most distressing reason to doubt whether Our feelings and judgements regarding them have changed. It is certainly true that we do not wish to repeat here the audacious acts—or rather the improprieties lamented elsewhere, and we derive hope from the precautions taken and the instructions issued right up to the last moment by the organisers and those in charge; but the nature and substance of the matter remain, after all, the same, with the aforementioned aggravating factors of the location and historical precedents; there remains a stark contrast with the
particularly delicate requirements of girls’ education, which are immeasurably more delicate and worthy of respect when such education is intended and must be Christian education. No one can think that this excludes or fails to appreciate all that it can give to the body, that most noble instrument of the soul, agility and sound grace, health and true and wholesome strength; provided it is done in the proper manner, at the proper times and in the proper places; provided that everything that is at odds with modesty and dignity—which are such an adornment and safeguard of virtue—is avoided; provided that any incentive to vanity and violence is excluded. If a woman’s hand must be raised, We hope and pray that it may always and only be in an act of prayer and benevolent action.

We would have discussed this matter at greater length and at an earlier stage with you, Your Eminence, on such a lofty and important subject, had we been able to obtain and ascertain the final details of what was being prepared. The constraints of time compel us to limit ourselves to these few brief reflections. With these thoughts, we wholeheartedly send you, as a sign of every blessing, the Apostolic Blessing.

ACTA APOSTOLICAE SEDIS 20, pg 135-137
https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/docuмents/AAS-20-1928-ocr.pdf