Several readers sent me in the following story.
ROME — An Italian priest and theologian said Sunday he is organizing an online beauty pageant for nuns to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour.
The "Miss Sister 2008" contest will start in September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and will give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image.
"Nuns are a bit excluded, they are a bit marginalized in ecclesiastical life," Rungi told The Associated Press after Italian media carried reports of the idea. "This will be an occasion to make their contribution more visible."
Rungi, a theologian and schoolteacher from the Naples area, said that visitors to his site will have a month to "vote for the nun they consider a model."
Nuns will fill out a profile including information about their life and vocation as well as a photograph. It will be up to them to choose whether to pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered.
"We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits," Rungi said by telephone from his town of Mondragone. "But being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn’t hide it."
Rungi said the idea was first suggested to him by nuns with whom he regularly prays and works. He hopes there will be dozens of submissions once the Web site is started.
The contest drew criticism from the association of Catholic teachers.
"It’s an initiative that belittles the role of nuns who have dedicated themselves to God," the group’s president, Alberto Giannino, told Italy’s ANSA news agency on Sunday.
I wonder if they will have a pantsuit competition or is that reserved for American nun beauty contests (what a scary image)? This though is such a bad idea on so many levels. If you think bit nuns are being "marginalized in ecclesiastical life" why in the world would you marginalize them further. This story is getting coverage because everyone immediately realizes how silly this is. How about a spiritual beauty contest? "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." Though trying to book God to be a judge at a spiritual beauty contest is rather difficult and he is the only one fully qualified.
The contest is now canceled.