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A Beauty Pageant for Nuns - cancelled!

by Jordan Yerman | August 24, 2008 at 07:34 am

1452 views | 7 Recommendations | 5 comments

This is a total Sunday News Story: a Catholic priest is forming an online beauty contest that will only be open to nuns. He's calling it the "Sister Italia" contest, though it will be open to nuns from 'round the globe. How will submissions be vetted? One hopes that competing nuns wouldn't send in fake photos, but beauty contests tend to bring out the darkest urges, if popular entertainment is to be believed...

Father Rungi, a moral theologian who has his own blog (padreantoniorungi.myblog.it), said the nuns would not wear swimsuits or revealing outfits. He said what he valued most in a woman was "inner beauty". Asked for his feminine ideal however, he replied "Well, I would say Sophia Loren".

The contestants must be aged between 18 and 40, and can be either full members of an order or novices. Father Rungi said he expected many of those who applied to be young, attractive - and non-Italian.

"Do you really think nuns are all wizened, funereal old ladies?" he said. "Today it's not like that any more, thanks to an injection of youth and vitality brought to our country by foreign girls". He said there were nuns from Africa and Latin America who were "really very, very pretty - the Brazilian girls above all".

I just can't stop quoting this article...

He admitted that not all Catholics were in favour of the idea. "I have had some e-mails from Christians who perhaps have not grasped the evangelising spirit of the initiative, or the potential of the internet, which is a marvellous tool for spreading the Christian message. Unfortunately some people still have a closed mentality".

As yet, no equivalent contest exists for priests.

Sadly, the blog mentioned in the quoted article seems to have gone offline.

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Barry ORegan

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:59 on August 24th, 2008

jordan, I like this story. It's good stuff. I am sure the Pope is thinking WTF? What about one for Altar Boys, I am just saying!

The Nuns I had in school in Quebec, were certainly no prize at the fair, that's for sure.

jamilkareem

at 13:06 on August 25th, 2008

This photography was taken by Photojournalist Jamil-Kareem. This frame is part of a series of cloistered nuns in a monastery in a small country town in Louisiana (45 minutes from New Orleans) They pray 7x a day praying for all of us, in the interim, they are just regular people like you and me; whereas, they laugh and joke around. They are really are a wonderful group of women that just love to serve the most high. I am preparing an article photo slide show and a piece on this for a major publication.

jamilkareem has contributed a photo to this story.

rumana husain

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:22 on August 26th, 2008

jordan, I like this story. It's good stuff. the Father definitely has good taste: "Sophia Loren"...for sure.

Amy Judd

at 17:47 on August 26th, 2008

The beauty pagent has been cancelled... too bad...:

An Italian priest who said he wanted to hold the world's first beauty contest for nuns has decided to cancel the project, saying he was misunderstood.
Antonio Rungi said he had never intended to put sisters on the catwalk, but had wanted to erase a stereotype of them as being old and dour.
He had wanted to hold the contest online on his internet blog.
Father Rungi said he changed his mind after the local religious authorities expressed their displeasure.
"My superiors were not happy. The local bishop was not happy, but they did not understand me either," Father Rungi told Reuters news agency from the town of Mondragone, near Naples.
"It was interpreted as more of a physical thing," he said. "Now, no one is saying that nuns can't be beautiful, but I was thinking about something more complete."