RC priest holds a beauty contest

An Italian priest who wants to hold a beauty contest open only to nuns - with photos appearing online and voting due to start in mid-September - has caused a certain amount of consternation over the weekend. But it seems it is not the first time Father Antonio Rungi (pictured) has attracted attention to himself. Earlier this summer he was behind a project to put an inflatable 'bouncy castle' church on Italy's beaches, offering sunseekers the chance to take confession and offer prayers without leaving the seafront.

On the Mediterranean coast, nuns from a convent near Naples were installed in tents, available to join holidaymakers saying the rosary. "The concept of a beach-convent is something that is appreciated by vacationers and the nuns themselves," said Father Rungi.

This time, Father Rungi may have gone too far. He says he expects at least 1,000 nuns to enter his online Sister Italia contest. To the Vatican's relief, he did at least agree that the nuns would not wear swimsuits or revealing outfits. But then he blew it by saying that he expects many of those who enter his contest to be young, attractive and non-Italian.

"Do you really think nuns are all wizened, funereal old ladies?" he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera. "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."

Asked what he valued most in a woman, he said: "Inner beauty". But when asked for his feminine ideal, he replied: "Well, I would say Sophia Loren."