“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.

Rev. Antonio Rungi, a theologian and schoolteacher from the Naples area, says he wants to fight the stereotype that nuns are all old and dour.

The “Miss Sister 2008″ contest will start in September on a blog run by Rungi. Visitors to the site will have a month to “vote for the nun they consider a model.”

Nuns will fill out a profile, including information about their life and vocation, and provide the website with a photograph.

It will be up to them to choose whether to pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered.

But Rungi says web surfers can forget it if they think they’ll be finding any bikini-clad nuns.

“We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits,” Rungi said by telephone from his town of Mondragone. “But being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn’t hide it.”

Rungi said the idea was first suggested to him by nuns with whom he regularly prays and works. He hopes there will be dozens of submissions once the web site is started.

The contest drew criticism from the association of Catholic teachers.

“It’s an initiative that belittles the role of nuns who have dedicated themselves to God,” the group’s president, Alberto Giannino, told Italy’s ANSA news agency Sunday.

Sanctity of the church

CINCINNATI – The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has issued a detailed list of inappropriate behaviors for priests, saying they should not kiss, tickle or wrestle children.

The newest version of the archdiocese’s Decree on Child Protection also prohibits bear hugs, lap-sitting and piggyback rides.

But it says priests may still shake children’s hands, pat them on the back and give high-fives.

Victim advocates who have criticized the Roman Catholic archdiocese for its handling of abuse cases say they support the new measures as a step toward better protection of children.

The Cincinnati archdiocese says it updates the rules every five years. The latest version, issued last week, also mandates background checks for contractors working with children.

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