It was a foggy, rainy Memorial holiday weekend in the greater NYC area, a dismal weather pattern I can’t help but interpret as Mother Nature’s commentary on the current state of affairs. But looking on the sunny side, my mother and I weren’t derailed from our weekend plans: catching up on the latest season of Tucci in Italy. Stanley does not disappoint! We thoroughly enjoyed watching il Tucci eat his way through the regions of Campania, Sicily, Le Marche, Sardinia, and Veneto. Too bad Stanley already visited Lazio last season, because I’m sure the Conclave star would have a super hot take on the breaking news of biblical proportions that came out of Rome last week: most of the sexy priests in the sexy priests of Rome calendar aren’t really priests! They’re fakes!! È da folli!!! Roman newspaper La Repubblica defrocked the oft-used cover sacerdote shot: Giovanni Galizia, who posed for photographer Piero Pazzi as a 17-year-old and has gone on to holy grace the calendar for 20+ years. Galizia confessed to the Associated Press:
“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 told The Associated Press during an interview Wednesday in his Verona living room.
…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.
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 only knew one of the other subjects, a French man who also was not a priest.
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.
Galizia said he has 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.
“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 is some ways so lofty as the ecclesiastical world, with such a fresh-faced young man, creates a kind of dissonance,” he says.
But he also said he doesn’t understand why the black-and-white close-ups have 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 sexualized, 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 says he receives royalties, Galizia, who signed a release form when the photo was taken, said he has never sought payment.
Well, all I can say is the photographer is appropriately named Pazzi! And speaking of crazy, I can’t believe the AP would include a throwaway line like this without any further details, saying Piero Pazzi: “has also created a calendar featuring Venetian gondoliers and has founded museums in Budapest and Montenegro on the history of cats.” Decades worth of photographing sexy Italian men cosplaying as priests is one thing, but was the perpetual liturgical fraud undertaken to underwrite two cat museums?? Is the cat mafia behind Calendario-Cancello?! I couldn’t find much of a paw print online about either museum, except for a tiny pamphlet about the one in Montenegro. Guess where that museum is located — in a former monastery! The conspiracy continues! I’m just sayin’, if this whole scandal is a message put out by cats worldwide to remind us of who’s really in power, politically, religiously, and otherwise, then message RECEIVED.
As for Galizia, he gave a video interview about this blasphemy infamy, and I think he’s even cuter now than he was at 17! (Don’t hate me, but 17-year-old Galizia in the priest photo is giving me Marco Rubio vibes.) Anyway, he was totally relaxed on camera. On not making any royalties from the photo, Galizia said, “Having fun is more valuable than money,” and from the way he said it, he actually means it! Not a real priest, still taking a vow of poverty. Sort of. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to verify the legitimacy of my Yoga Puppies & Kittens wall calendar.
