The Catholic Church made no formal pronouncement against women’s suffrage in the early 20th century, but Pope St. Pius X and numerous other members of the hierarchy spoke out against it.
“ST. Louis, MO, Sept 17, 1912 (The New York Times) — Cardinal [James] Gibbons told 550 men at the City Club luncheon this afternoon that if an historian ever had cause to write the “Decline and Fall of the American Republic”, it would not be due to an invading army, but to the criminal sloth and negligence and the political apostasy of our own citizens.
“Before his address he said in an authorized interview:
“’Female suffrage, in my opinion, would tend toward increasing divorce, which is a social blot on the United States, and is the greatest evil of the day. If woman had equal political rights with men there is a probability that on the slightest provocation she would seek divorce. Given such equality they might overstep the bounds. Women under present conditions are too prone to go to the divorce courts, and political equality might make them more so. It might have the effect of turning their heads.
“’Divorce is now too easy to get. If a husband leaves home for a couple of weeks and his wife wants freedom she is likely to use his absence as a pretext. Nowadays, if a woman cannot get a divorce in her own State, she goes off to Nevada, where it is made easy.
“’One of the worst features of the divorce evil is its bad effect upon children. When parents separate it means separation of children, of brothers and sisters. Children thus bereft of proper family influences are likely to go astray.
“’Divorce is increasing in the United States. The evil prevails here more generally than in any other country. We must get back to the Gospel. The laws should be made more strict, so that it would not be so easy to disrupt the marriage ties on flimsy pretexts.’”
Source: These Noble Ladies, A Study of the Anti-Suffrage Movement by Rev. Christopher Hunter, SSPX
