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 \u201csexy priest calendar\u201d could be more accurately called \u201cthe fake priest calendar,\u201d drawing nationwide attention.<\/p>\n
The calendar is not affiliated with the Vatican, which declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Now a 39-year-old flight attendant for a Spanish airline, Galizia was just 17 years old 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.<\/p>\n
Officially named Calendario Romano, each edition features 12 black-and-white portraits of men mostly in clerical attire \u2014 many of which are recycled year after year. Galizia only knew one of the other subjects, a French man who also was not a priest.<\/p>\n
Pazzi told the AP that at least one-third of those pictured in the already released 2027 calendar are actually priests but provided no details.<\/p>\n
Galizia said he has never been stopped on the street, though his cousins once gave the calendar to their grandmother as a gift, \u201cand they all died laughing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But he also said he doesn\u2019t understand why the black-and-white close-ups have been interpreted as sexy. Pazzi also said that was not the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a tendency to confuse what is beautiful with what is sensual, because nowadays, especially in today\u2019s world, which is quite sexualized, beauty is expressed only through sensuality,\u201d Galizia said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat said, I appreciate the observation and take it as a compliment \u2014 because managing to be sexy in a priest\u2019s collar is no small feat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pazzi won\u2019t say how many of the Roman calendars have been sold \u2014 but estimates several thousand a year. While Pazzi says he receives royalties, Galizia, who signed a release form when the photo was taken, said he has never sought payment.<\/p>\n
The calendar sells for around 8 euros (around $9.30) in shops that surround the Vatican and crowd Rome\u2019s historic center. One shop clerk, Hassam Mohammad, said he sells a handful of them every day.<\/p>\n
Pazzi includes a page of information about the Vatican in the calendar, but its production is independent and unrelated to the Holy See.<\/p>\n
A priest from South Korea walking near the Vatican this week said that the calendar is well known in his home country, especially among young people who view the calendar with humor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey often think priests are stiff and distant,\u201d said the priest, who identified himself informally as Father Domenico. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Galizia, the shoot was a lark that left no mark on his life, until a story in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2132,240,13455,1100,27,243],"class_list":["post-18344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rome","tag-catholic-church","tag-general-news","tag-oddities","tag-religion","tag-rome","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}