Bishop bucks holding of bikini contests

MANILA, Philippines - Baring too much skin under the sun is bad for one’s morality.

Lipa, Batangas Archbishop Ramon Arguelles said he is against the practice of some business establishments and organizations that set up bikini contests to promote a product or attract more clientele during summer.

“We are against that because you are subjecting the body of a woman to the lustful eyes of men and vice versa... It lowers the morality so we are against anything that lowers the morality and all of its manifestations,” Arguelles said.

As for his archdiocese, Arguelles said he was not aware of any bikini contest in Batangas. But if there were such an event, he said he would surely discourage it.

Arguelles said the faithful could come up with other activities this summer that would not necessarily expose much of their bodies.

“I suggest they just don’t promote what demeans the woman... the Church is against making women’s bodies an object of lustful eyes,” he said.

While these kinds of contests are being tolerated, it should not be used to exploit men and women, said Fr. Conegundo Garganta, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Youth (CBCP-ECY).

“Activities similar to this while tolerated, should and must be conducted with a pure intention of affirming not only physical beauty but also that of clarity of values. This should not promote exploitation of women but celebrate possessing beauty and the responsibility attached to it,” Garganta said.

“Men included, (they should) not be exploited but made to understand that with the gift of beauty and good physique is the amount of responsibility to value the power that comes with it,” he added.