Miss Sister 2008

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Priest organizes beauty contest for nuns :blink:

Miss Sister 2008

[Eratosthenes 0]

Oh good lord...

[A l t e r E g o 9]

Welcome to the Last Days of Planet Earth.

[Kor37 9]

That is utterly insane!

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

What, are they gonna have a wet habit contest?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

You might try reading the article before condemning the idea.

 

"We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits," Rungi said by telephone from his town of Mondragone.

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

Rumor has it the talent competition will consist primarily of ruler-inflicted knuckle-rapping.

[Eratosthenes 0]

What, are they gonna have a wet habit contest?

:blink:

[Wishfire 2]

"We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits," Rungi said by telephone from his town of Mondragone.

 

[trekz 7]

If the idea is to show that nuns are more modern than the past stereotypes, I think this could be a good idea. Being a librarian, I am very familiar with the stereotypes people have about various professions. And I agree with Van Roy. Read the whole article, don't just comment on the title and subtitles.

[Indy 8]

I read the article yesterday and it seems to me there might be better ways to "make their contribution more visible." If they want to do away with the old stereotypes, they might need a new PR person. A few well-placed articles and stories of their contributions and achievements might be a better idea as I'm sure there are many, many people who have no idea what a nun does. I'm a firm believer in beauty coming from the inside anyway, so to judge the outside beauty of a nun has little meaning to me. It does, however, state in the article that the participating nuns will fill out a profile about their life and vocation. Unfortunately, they are expected to be judged by "the nun they consider a model."

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I read the entire article - I still find it disturbing. Beauty contests are worldy and if you're worldly that might not be a bad thing - but nuns aren't supposed to be worldly. They shouldn't care what the world thinks of their beauty and besides, photographs and profiles don't reveal true beauty. I've known people that got better looking and people that got worse looking as I got to know them. I'm sure the sisters are as beauty as angels to those they serve - even the old wrinkly ones.

[Eratosthenes 0]

If the idea is to show that nuns are more modern than the past stereotypes, I think this could be a good idea. Being a librarian, I am very familiar with the stereotypes people have about various professions. And I agree with Van Roy. Read the whole article, don't just comment on the title and subtitles.

I have problems with beauty pageants to begin with, so when I hear that nuns are participating in something so superficial, I have to do a double-take. Personally I'm an atheist (I used to be Catholic) but that doesn't mean that I think anything specific about nuns other than the required devotion to God.

 

I've never thought of nuns as ugly or attractive as a whole (I'm sure Trekkies have a false unattractive stereotype in pop culture, too) and I'm surprised that the nuns that suggested this had such strong feelings about what the public thought of their physical beauty. Certainly if they were seen in public their physical appearance would be 'judged' on a nun-to-nun basis, rather than as a whole...and if it's the worldwide stereotype of nuns' appearances they're worried about, why does it matter?

 

Personally I'd MUCH rather see a nun water skiing contest, or a nun musical, or a nuns-in-the-world-solving-problems TV series (for charity) or something else along those lines...not nuns (of all people) posing and looking pretty. It's just not a talent...and ANYBODY can be born with good looks, nuns included. I know that's what they're trying to convey, but again...

 

Why does it matter?

[Wishfire 2]

I read the entire article - I still find it disturbing. Beauty contests are worldy and if you're worldly that might not be a bad thing - but nuns aren't supposed to be worldly.

 

Well, just to play Devil's Advocate ( ), what better way to get the attention (and maybe change the minds of a few) of those who focus on the worldly? It's a publicity stunt. They want to get people's attention, and this most certainly will do the trick.

[Eratosthenes 0]

I read the entire article - I still find it disturbing. Beauty contests are worldy and if you're worldly that might not be a bad thing - but nuns aren't supposed to be worldly.

 

Well, just to play Devil's Advocate ( ), what better way to get the attention (and maybe change the minds of a few) of those who focus on the worldly? It's a publicity stunt. They want to get people's attention, and this most certainly will do the trick.

It actually reminds me a bit of Calendar Girls (a movie based on a true story about retired women in the UK that posed nude with household objects covering their points of interest and made it into a calendar for a fundraiser). Now THAT was a great publicity stunt (and really cute).

[TJ Phaserman 2]

UPDATE

 

 

No nuns on catwalk, priest stops "beauty contest"

 

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian priest who had planned an online "pageant" for nuns has suspended the project, saying he was misinterpreted and had no intention of putting sisters on a beauty catwalk.

 

"My superiors were not happy. The local bishop was not happy, but they did not understand me either," Father Antonio Rungi told Reuters by telephone from his convent in southern Italy Tuesday.

 

"It was not at all my intention to put nuns on the catwalk," said Rungi, a priest of the Passionists religious order, speaking from his convent in the town of Mondragone.

 

Rungi's idea appeared in newspapers around the world after he wrote of a contest for nuns on his blog, called by some "Sister Italy 2008."

 

"It was interpreted as more of a physical thing. Now, no-one is saying that nuns can't be beautiful, but I was thinking about something more complete," he said.

 

He said his concept for the contest, in which nuns would vote for themselves on his blog, would include attributes such as their spirituality, social awareness, charity and other qualities.

 

Rungi wrote in his blog that his intention was to show "the interior beauty" of a nun and the work she does for the Church and for society, mostly in education and health care.

 

"We have to draw more attention to the world of nuns, who are often not sufficiently appreciated by society," he wrote, adding that he had hoped his initiative would help boost sagging vocations to religious lie.

 

"Many monasteries in Italy are dying because of a lack of religious vocations," he wrote.

 

Rungi said he received a lot of calls of support but also many sharp emails by people who attacked him for wanting to create a Miss Italy-style event.

 

"Some of them were really nasty," he said.

 

i can't believe i called it when something like this was gonna happen