An Italian priest is holding a beauty contest with a difference — it will be open only to nuns.

Father Antonio Rungi, of Mondrag-one, near Naples, said he expected at least 1,000 nuns to enter the Sister Italia contest. It would run online at first, but he hoped that it would become a “real pageant” along the lines of the annual Miss Italy contest.

Father Rungi, a moral theologian with his own blog, said that the nuns would not wear swimsuits or revealing outfits. What he valued most in a woman was “inner beauty”. Asked for his feminine ideal, he replied: “Well, I would say Sophia Loren.”

The contestants must be aged between 18 and 40, and can be either full members of an order or novices. Father Rungi said that he expected many who applied to be young, attractive — and non-Italian. He said: “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.”

Father Rungi — who has organised religious services on Naples beaches at which sunbathers can say the rosary — said photos of the contestants would appear on his blog at the beginning of next month for online readers to vote for their favourite.

The nuns can decide whether to wear their full habits, including veils, or let their hair down. Each photo will be accompanied by an account by the nun of her life, personality, daily activities and spiritual development.

Father Rungi said: “Nuns are women above all else, and beauty is a gift from God.” He told Corriere della Sera that it was the nuns themselves who had suggested the idea while helping him to run prayer services on the beach. He said: “Many have assured me they will take part.” Father Rungi conceded that he risked being seen as a publicity seeker, but added: “You need a bit of courage to do something like this. Nuns deserve much more attention than they get.”

Nuns had both “physical and spiritual beauty”, he said, and often did social, caring or hospital work in which an “attractive presence” was an advantage. The Sister Italia 2008 contest was a way of showing that female beauty was “not just the plasticised beauty you see on television. There is also such a thing as a chaste ideal, which comes from the heart and the soul, and has a beneficial effect on those who come into contact with it.”

He admitted that not all Catholics were in favour of the idea. “I have had some e-mails from Christians who perhaps have not grasped the evangelising spirit of the initiative, or the potential of the internet, which is a marvellous tool for spreading the Christian message. Unfortunately, some people still have a closed mentality”.

There is no equivalent contest in Italy for priests. However, for the past four years a calendar featuring handsome young priests and seminarians posing against Rome landmarks has been a bestseller at newspaper kiosks.

Shaping up

— Inmates of a women’s prison in Siberia enter an annual Miss Spring contest, to demonstrate good behaviour and win early parole

— The Mazayin Dhafra festival in Abu Dhabi this year staged a beauty pageant for camels, in a government-sponsored move to remind Emiratis of their heritage

— The Miss Mama Kilo contest in Cameroon is reserved for women weighing 90kg (198lb) or more

Sources: agencies, indiana.edu

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge