beauty pageant

Will her success herald a new spirit of cosmopolitanism?

She missed an opportunity at the Republican National Convention to connect with American women

For too long now, sexy nuns have languished in the shadows of convents and abbeys without so much as a catcall to flatter them. At last their hour has come. An Italian priest has announced a beauty pageant, the Sister Italia contest, along the lines of the Miss Italy pageant, but for ladies who won’t kick the habit. (No more of those, I promise.) Father Antonio Rungi, an entrepreneurial priest based in a town near Naples, seems to have been inspired by the strides nuns have made in recent years. “Do you really think nuns are all wizened, funereal old ladies?” the Times of London quoted him as saying. “Today it’s not like that anymore…” Father Rungi took special notice of nuns from Africa and Latin America—particularly Brazil. I’d make a joke here but, really, do I need to?