{"id":8305,"date":"2026-05-20T23:32:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8305"},"modified":"2026-05-20T23:32:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:32:29","slug":"holy-deception-romes-sexy-priest-calendar-star-never-set-foot-in-a-seminary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8305","title":{"rendered":"Holy deception: Rome\u2019s \u2018sexy priest\u2019 calendar star never set foot in a seminary"},"content":{"rendered":"

By COLLEEN BARRY and PAOLO SANTALUCIA<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROME (AP) \u2014 A calendar featuring close-ups of young, handsome men in priestly attire has been a perennial Rome souvenir for the last two decades \u2014 but few, it seems, are actually men of the cloth.<\/p>

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Giovanni Galizia has been the cover shot for the so-called sexy priest calendar for many of the last 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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,\u201d Galizia told The Associated Press during an interview Wednesday in his Verona living room.<\/p>\n

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

A popular souvenir with 12 black-and-white portraits<\/h4>\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<\/div>\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

The calendar was intended as art, not deception<\/h4>\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