Projo Offbeat Blog

If you're the kind of guy who's ever thought, "That nun might be kind of cute if she'd take that veil off her head and wipe that frown off her face," you should probably go straight to confession.

But you also might like to know that an Italian priest is organizing a worldwide beauty pageant for nuns.

Rev. Antonio Rungi tells the Associated Press that he's doing it to help fight the stereotype that nuns are all old and dour.

It's disappointing to know that this stereotype persists despite the perkiest efforts of Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, Sally Field in The Flying Nun and Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act.

Even though Rungi doesn't "plan to parade nuns in bathing suits," he's come under some criticism and not because his critics think his idea is just a cheap ploy to get people back to Mass on Sunday mornings.

The Association of Catholic teachers says the idea "belittles the role of nuns who have dedicated themselves to God."

Rungi, who finds Brazilian nuns especially beautiful and expects 1,000 nuns to enter the contest, says the pageant is an opportunity to raise the profile of nuns and their work.

Besides, he says, "External beauty is a gift from God, and we mustn't hide it."

Rungi isn't the first person to come up with an unusual idea for a beauty pageant.
In Cameroon, there's a pageant reserved for women weighing at least 90 kilograms (198.4 pounds). At the Texas Mosquito Festival, men and women with mosquito-like legs compete for the title of Mr. or Ms. Mosquito, and in Battle Mountain, Nev., residents crown an Armpit Queen annually.

Still, Rungi's pageant makes you wonder what's next for the nuns. A calendar? A call from Hugh Hefner?

 Tags  beauty pageants Hugh Hefner Julie Andrews nuns Rev. Antonio Rungi Sally Field Whoopi Goldberg

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