Rev. Antonio Rungi plans to launch the Miss Sister 2008 contest in September and he says nuns around the world will have the opportunity to showcase their image and work.
Entrants will fill out a profile including information about their life and vocation -- as well as a photograph. The nuns may choose to pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered. Visitors to Rungi's website will have a month to vote for the nun that they consider "model."
Rungi, who hopes to draw dozens of submissions once the website is started, said that he will not be hosting a bathing-suit competition like the ones seen in Miss Universe pageants.
"We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits," Rungi told the Associated Press. "But being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn't hide it."
Rungi, a theologian and schoolteacher from the Naples area, also hopes that the beauty contest will give nuns more visibility in the Catholic church.
"Nuns are a bit excluded, they are a bit marginalized in ecclesiastical life," Father Rungi, told the AP yesterday after Italian media carried reports of the idea."This will be an occasion to make their contribution more visible."
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