修女也選美

修女是天主教中離家進修會的女教徒，通常要發(fā)三愿（即“絕財”、“絕色”及“絕意”），她們從事祈禱和協(xié)助神父進行傳教的工作。

提起“修女”二字，你腦海中浮現(xiàn)出什么印象？滿面滄桑、一臉冷酷、不食人間煙火的老婦人？

現(xiàn)在，有人要向大家證明，這種傳統(tǒng)印象是不準確的。

修女是天主教中離家進修會的女教徒，通常要發(fā)三愿（即“絕財”、“絕色”及“絕意”），她們從事祈禱和協(xié)助神父進行傳教的工作。

提起“修女”二字，你腦海中浮現(xiàn)出什么印象？滿面滄桑、一臉冷酷、不食人間煙火的老婦人？

現(xiàn)在，有人要向大家證明，這種傳統(tǒng)印象是不準確的。

A rather open-minded Italian priest is running a beauty contest for nuns.

The 1)pageant， which is the 2)brainchild of Father Antonio Rungi， is intended to challenge the stereotype of the nun as plain at best and

3)grotesque at worst. Father Antonio is expecting 1，000 4)habit-clad lovelies to line up and display their gorgeousnessiexcl;ordf;although not too much of it. Any unspeakable 5)pervs hoping for details of the blessed bikini round should stop reading nowiexcl;ordf;the best you can hope for from the 6)parade of sisters is loosened hair.

“Do you really think nuns are all 7)wizened， funereal old ladies?” questioned the enterprising priest. “Today it’s not like that any more， thanks to an injection of youth and 8)vitality brought to our

country by foreign girls.” He wants to show the world that nuns have “physical and spiritual beauty”，

although of course he considers “inner beauty” to be most important. The contest aims to show that “there is... such a thing as a 9)chaste ideal， which comes from the heart and the soul， and has a beneficial effect on those who come into contact with it”.

The Sister Italia contest is to run online to begin with， but Father Antonio wants to see it emerge into the real world thereafter. Contestants must be between 18 and 40， and can be 10)novices or full members of an order. They can also be from outside Italyiexcl;ordf;nuns from Africa and Brazil especially are “really very， very pretty”， apparently.

The idea came from the nuns themselves， Father Antonio insists， and they are 11)keen to participate. Each will be required to submit a photograph along with details about herself and her daily life as well as her spiritual development.

The first 12)batch of 13)scrumptious nuns will grace the priest’s blog at the start of September. The latest post appears to be Father Antonio’s reaction to the inevitably 14)smirky press coverage of the beauty contest (how 15)tawdry of them， we shall have no part of it) and the perhaps even more inevitable

frowning from unimpressed Catholics.

“I have had some emails from Christians who perhaps have not grasped the 16)evangelizing spirit of the initiative， or the

potential of the internet， which is a marvellous tool for spreading

the Christian message，” the priest said. “Unfortunately， some people still have a closed mentality.”

Happily， Father Antonio hasn’t let the 17)naysayers put him off. According to Google’s accurate translation of his blog， he

18)defiantly concludes: “If a blog unit where the nuns told you can almost compete in goodness， love and service to life and goodness of men roll by any party. “ We can all learn a little something from that.

Boot note

Alas， according to 19)Reuters it’s all off 20)as of 26 August 2008， due to Father Antonio’s less than open-minded 21)superiors and too much tawdry

22)sniggering/angry mud-slinging from other

quarters. “My superiors were not happy，” said Father Antonio. “The local 23)bishop was not

happy， but they did not understand me either.”

“It was not at all my intention to put nuns on the catwalk.”

Sorry， Father.

一位思想相當前衛(wèi)的意大利神父要舉辦一場修女選美大賽。

這場選美是意大利天主教神父安東尼奧#8226;倫吉的神來之筆，旨在改變?nèi)藗儗π夼膫鹘y(tǒng)印象——“平淡無奇”算是好的評價了，差的可謂“丑陋古怪”。安東尼奧神父希望有1000名修女參賽，展示她們姣好的一面——但也不能展露過多。那些希望有一群身穿性感比基尼的美女讓他們看個夠的色鬼可以就此打住了——這場修女選美里面，她們最多只會把頭發(fā)披下來而已。

“你真的認為修女全是干癟陰郁的老太太？”這位頗有魄力的神父質(zhì)疑道。“現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)不再是那個樣子，多虧那些外國女孩的加入，給修女形象注入了青春和活力。”他要向世人展示其實修女們“秀外慧中”，盡管他認為“內(nèi)在美”更為重要。選美旨在告訴大家“世界上有一種叫做‘貞潔完美’的典范，它來自心靈與靈魂，與之接觸，會令人受益匪淺。……