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Utterly pathetic. Totally desperate. Why don't they deal with serious issues in the world then people would take church more seriously.

p.s., ultimately, what's the difference between these emergent approaches and comic calenders?

Haha! PTL, I'm no emergencee, but I think there's a difference between them and nun calendars. One is a serious approach to doing church, the other is a gimmick for no apparent reason whatever.

Well there we have it Smasher, seems that the Roman Catholic Church has finally caught up with the Protestant fixation on being 'relevant'.

Relevance is not relevant of course, it's just the misplaced idea that non-believers will be impressed by the church doing things that non-believers are better at.

Sort of dumb really.

"Father Rungi stressed that nuns were not being invited to parade in bathing suits, saying it will be up to them whether they pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered."

Does that mean they can parade in bathing suits if they like? With traditional veils? What does an non-traditional veil look like? And can Channel 4 turn this into a reality TV programme?

GV

Do you mean Graham that C4 could call it something like 'Big Mother'?

Alternatively: I seem to remember a website some time ago called something like 'Nun in a bun' - it related to an apparition of Mother Theresa in a croissant - we might call this one 'Buns on a Nun'

Maybe they could have a swimsuit round - the nuns could wear the swimsuits under their habits.

I know at one stage conservative Christians were trying to promote "hot monogamy", but isn't "hot chastity" taking things a little too far?

GV

Peter M - why drag me into it?

It's one crackpottey priest - I don't think that constitutes the "Catholic Church".

He's right, though, that there are some beautiful nuns - they'd be better just entering the Rose of Tralee, currently boring us on RTE over two nights.

Hi Smasher

I wasn't trying to 'drag you into' anything, just making a comment to you as you are one of the few obviously sincere Catholics I am aware of on the blog. Please understand this too, I wasn't attempting to jeer either, just noting that both Protestants and Catholics have their lunatic fringe. Sometimes however it seems that the fringe has gone mainstream! The madness is something I regret in both sections of the Christian Church.

Note too that I specifically picked up on the reference to 'relevance' implied in the Ö÷²¥´óÐã report linked above and related it directly to the misplaced emphasis many Protestant churches have put on this notion in recent years.

I'm sure you will agree with me that the main focus of the Christian Church, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant is the communication of the good news of Jesus Christ and while it is imperative that we make every effort to communicate this in a way that the surrounding culture will best understand, our business is grace, not beauty pageants, the building of conference centers masquerading as church buildings in the belief that facilities encourage faith, or any other attempt to beat non-believers at their own game.

You know that the Catholic Church is getting desperate when they have to use sex to sell the product. So what does this say to people who are not beautiful, that god doesn't love them as much? It seems to me we have some kind of crisis of dogma, a conflict with doctrine here.

Just remember one of Murphy's laws, beauty is only skin deep, ugly goes to the bone. And remember to never play leapfrog with a unicorn.

Marc
Agreed, and about more than the unicorn.
Father Rungi said "This contest will be a way to show there isn't just the beauty we see on television but also a more discreet charm."
And obviously an Internet beauty contest will be the best way of bringing that out.

GV