修女是天主教中離家進(jìn)修會(huì)的女教徒，通常要發(fā)三愿（即“絕財(cái)”、“絕色”及“絕意”），她們從事祈禱和協(xié)助神父進(jìn)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(zhǔn)確的。

修女是天主教中離家進(jìn)修會(huì)的女教徒，通常要發(fā)三愿（即“絕財(cái)”、“絕色”及“絕意”），她們從事祈禱和協(xié)助神父進(jìn)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(zhǔn)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(dāng)前衛(wèi)的意大利神父要舉辦一場(chǎng)修女選美大賽。

這場(chǎng)選美是意大利天主教神父安東尼奧#8226;倫吉的神來(lái)之筆，旨在改變?nèi)藗儗?duì)修女的傳統(tǒng)印象——“平淡無(wú)奇”算是好的評(píng)價(jià)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(guò)多。那些希望有一群身穿性感比基尼的美女讓他們看個(gè)夠的色鬼可以就此打住了——這場(chǎng)修女選美里面，她們最多只會(huì)把頭發(fā)披下來(lái)而已。

“你真的認(rèn)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?！艾F(xiàn)在已經(jīng)不再是那個(gè)樣子，多虧那些外國(guó)女孩的加入，給修女形象注入了青春和活力?！彼蚴廊苏故酒鋵?shí)修女們“秀外慧中”，盡管他認(rèn)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(lái)自心靈與靈魂，與之接觸，會(huì)令人受益匪淺?！?/p>

這場(chǎng)名為“意大利修女”的選美先在網(wǎng)上進(jìn)行，但安東尼奧神父希望不久以后能將選美舞臺(tái)搬到現(xiàn)實(shí)。參賽者的年齡須在18至40歲之間，可以是修道會(huì)中的見(jiàn)習(xí)修女，也可以是正式修女。非意大利籍的修女也可以參加——顯然，來(lái)自非洲、尤其是巴西的修女“真的非常非常漂亮”。

安東尼奧神父堅(jiān)稱，這個(gè)想法源自修女本身，而且她們都渴望參加比賽。參賽選手除了要上報(bào)個(gè)人資料、日常生活和修道進(jìn)展方面的詳情外，還要提交一張照片。

第一批修女佳麗會(huì)在九月初登上神父的個(gè)人博客。對(duì)于修女選美大賽，媒體報(bào)道不免有點(diǎn)訕笑“真俗氣！我們才不要這樣呢?！币苍S，更難免的是，天主教徒們不但不為所動(dòng)，還會(huì)大皺眉頭。神父博客上最新的一篇文章看來(lái)是他對(duì)這些態(tài)度的回應(yīng)。

“我收到了一些基督教徒發(fā)來(lái)的電子郵件，他們也許還沒(méi)領(lǐng)會(huì)我發(fā)起這次活動(dòng)的精神要旨，或者互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的潛力，其實(shí)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)在傳播基督教教義方面是個(gè)有力的工具，”神父說(shuō)道，“但很遺憾，有些人的思想還相當(dāng)閉塞?！?/p>

值得慶幸的是，安東尼奧神父沒(méi)有因反對(duì)的聲音而終止選美活動(dòng)。根據(jù)谷歌對(duì)神父?jìng)€(gè)人博客的“準(zhǔn)確”翻譯，神父大膽宣稱：“如果有一個(gè)博客，修女們?cè)谏厦嬲f(shuō)，你幾乎可以和她們就善良、愛(ài)心、人生奉獻(xiàn)方面一比高低，以及眾人的善心?！睆闹校覀兌寄茴I(lǐng)略到那么一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)意味了吧。

后記

我的天！據(jù)路透社報(bào)道，2008年8月26日那天，修女選美大賽被取消了，礙于那些不太開(kāi)明的修道院長(zhǎng)老，以及各界鋪天蓋地的冷嘲熱諷和怒斥憤毀?！拔宜谛薜涝旱哪切╅L(zhǎng)老們不高興，”安東尼奧神父說(shuō)道，“這里的主教也不高興，但他們沒(méi)理解我的初衷?！?/p>

“我根本無(wú)意給修女們安排T臺(tái)秀?！?/p>

抱歉了，神父安東尼奧。