innocent flowers
Photo by dr. Fil, taken on Mt. Triglav

In Italy, Corriere della Sera published news of a beauty pageant  for… Catholic nuns. The pageant is open to all nuns between the ages of 18 and 40.

Italian nuns will be able to show the world God’s gift of beauty by sending their photos to priest Antonio Rungi (southern Italian diocese of Modragone) who will publish the photos online and visitors to his blog can vote on the photos.”Miss Sister Italy”, the first beauty pageant of its type to take place in Rome, aims to challenge the stereotype of old and sad nuns. Father Rungi said it was the nun’s idea and that he expects about 1,000 contestants. “Nuns are above all women and beauty is a gift from God,” priest Rungi told a daily Italian newspaper. He continued explaining how beauty is not restricted to what we see on television and that young and vital foreign nuns will be participating. (source)

I shall hereby apply self-censorship and not say exactly what I think about this particular contest. Humm, I wonder if it will contribute to an increase in eating disorders in nunneries. Oh wait… silly me!