ROME—An Italian priest who had planned an online “pageant” for nuns has suspended the project, saying he was misinterpreted and had no intention of putting sisters on a beauty catwalk.

“My superiors were not happy. The local bishop was not happy, but they did not understand me either,” Fr. Antonio Rungi on Tuesday told Reuters by telephone from southern Italy.

“It was not at all my intention to put nuns on the catwalk,” Rungi, a priest of the Passionists religious order, said 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,” the priest 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.

‘Monasteries dying’

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.”

Fighting stereotypes

Rungi said he had received a lot of calls of support but also many sharp e-mails by people who attacked him for wanting to create a Miss Italy-style event.

“Some of them were really nasty,” he said.

Rungi, a theologian and schoolteacher from the Naples area, had thought the contest would give nuns more visibility within the Catholic Church and fight the stereotype that they were all old and dour. The “Miss Sister 2008” contest was supposed to start in September.

But he changed his mind after seeing reports that suggested nuns would be metaphorically put on a catwalk. He said what he had in mind was not just external beauty but what he called “overall beauty.”

“I wanted to make a blog on vocations, one where everybody could bring their own experiences,” Rungi told The Associated Press in another interview. “Instead, they (the critics) made it look like it was a catwalk a la Miss Italy.”

Still, Rungi said he hoped the idea could be revived in the future, if he could bring local religious authorities on board.