Padre Antonio Rungi of Italy hopes to hold “Miss Sister Italy 2008”—a beauty pageant for nuns from all over the world—next month on his blog (which seems to be down right now, but here it is cached.) to celebrate the youth and beauty that has recently invigorated his country. And by his country we’re pretty sure he means his pants.

“Do you really think nuns are all wizened, funereal old ladies? Today it’s not like that any more, thanks to an injection of youth and vitality brought to our country by foreign girls.” He said there were nuns from Africa and Latin America who were “really very, very pretty. The Brazilian girls above all.”

But lest you think Father Antonio is a perv, (as we do), it is comforting to note that he’s a moral theologian. And that in his beauty pageant, the nuns will not wear swimsuits or revealing outfits. They can decide whether to wear their full habits (hawt) or let their hair down. It doesn’t matter, of course, because what Father Rungi values most in a woman is her inner beauty.

Asked for his feminine ideal, he replied: “Well, I would say Sophia Loren.”

Priest Antonio Rungi wants beauty contest - for nuns [Times Online]