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Colleen Barry and Paolo Santalucia
Rome: A calendar featuring close-ups of young, handsome men in priestly attire has been a perennial Rome souvenir for the past two decades – but few, it seems, are actually men of the cloth.
Giovanni Galizia has been the cover shot for the so-called sexy priest calendar for many of the past 23 editions. In the same photo used year after year, Galizia wears a clerical collar and flashes an enigmatic smile worthy of the Mona Lisa against the granite wall of a church in his native Palermo.
“It was the smile of an embarrassed kid because I saw all my friends in front of me laughing out loud because I was dressed like I was a priest,” Galizia said during an interview in his Verona living room.
For Galizia, the shoot was a lark that left no mark on his life, until a story in the Rome daily La Repubblica this week revealed that the “sexy priest calendar” could be more accurately called “the fake priest calendar”, drawing nationwide attention.
The calendar is not affiliated with the Vatican, which declined to comment.
Now a 39-year-old flight attendant for a Spanish airline, Galizia was just 17 when mutual friends put him in touch with photographer Piero Pazzi, who has also created a calendar featuring Venetian gondoliers and has founded museums in Budapest and Montenegro on the history of cats.
Officially named Calendario Romano, each edition features 12 black-and-white portraits of men mostly in clerical attire – many of which are recycled year after year. Galizia knew only one of the other subjects, a Frenchman who was not a priest either.
Pazzi said at least one-third of those in the already released 2027 calendar are actually priests, but provided no details.
Galizia said he had never been stopped on the street, though his cousins once gave the calendar to their grandmother as a gift, “and they all died laughing”.
Galizia sees the photographs depicting priests as part of an artistic tradition, noting that no one watching a TV drama involving priests believes they are actually played by clergy.
‘Managing to be sexy in a priest’s collar is no small feat.’
Giovanni Galizia
“Of course, it winks a bit at the dynamic between the sacred and the profane because it is clear that seeing a world that is distant and in some ways so lofty as the ecclesiastical world, with such a fresh-faced young man, creates a kind of dissonance,” he said.
But he said he did not understand why the black-and-white close-ups had been interpreted as sexy. Pazzi also said that was not the point.
“There’s a tendency to confuse what is beautiful with what is sensual because nowadays, especially in today’s world, which is quite sexualised, beauty is expressed only through sensuality,” Galizia said.
“That said, I appreciate the observation and take it as a compliment – because managing to be sexy in a priest’s collar is no small feat.”
Pazzi won’t say how many of the Roman calendars have been sold, but estimates several thousand a year. While Pazzi said he received royalties, Galizia, who signed a release form when the photo was taken, said he had never sought payment.
The calendar sells for around €8 ($13) in shops surrounding the Vatican and crowding Rome’s historic centre. One shop clerk, Hassam Mohammad, said he sold a handful of them every day.
Pazzi includes a page of information about the Vatican in the calendar, but its production is independent and unrelated to the Holy See.
A priest from South Korea walking near the Vatican this week said the calendar was well known in his home country, especially among young people who viewed it with humour.
“They often think priests are stiff and distant,” said the priest, who identified himself informally as Father Domenico. “But looking at this calendar, they think priests are more familiar, and priests can be funny. I think in Korea this calendar is very famous, and it is OK.”
AP
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