Reuters.com reports that an Italian priest, who was planning to hold the world’s first beauty pageant for nuns, has decided to shelve the event after claims that his motives for the project were misconstrued.

The priest at the center of this controversial beauty contest, Antonio Rungi said his intentions were to dispute the stereotype about nuns being dourly and old, and that he never intended to ask the nuns to put themselves on display on a catwalk. Rungi planned for the pageant to be an online event on his Internet blog. However, a negative response from local religious authorities convinced Rungi to scrap his plans.

“My superiors were not happy,” Rungi explained in an interview with Reuters. “The local bishop was not happy, but they did not understand me either. 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.”

Rungi went on to explain that the event was meant to showcase the positive works and contributions that nuns make to the community and the world as a whole in an effort to raise interest in religious vocations. The idea Rungi proposed was to have nuns send in their photos to be posted online so readers of the blog could select a winner. Rungi also pointed out that it was not his idea to have the contest, but the concept was brought to him to by a group of interested nuns.

“We have to draw more attention to the world of nuns,” said Rungi in his blog, “who are often not sufficiently appreciated by society.”

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