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Model Behind Rome’s ‘Beautiful Priests’ Calendar Says He Was Never a Priest

The disclosure casts doubt on the souvenir’s claims of featuring real clergy.

Overview

  • Giovanni Galizia, long the cover face of the Calendario Romano, says he has never been a priest.
  • He told La Repubblica he wore a cassock at 17 only for a photographer’s shoot, not because he was ordained.
  • He said the famous image was taken in Palermo rather than Rome, and that he was not paid for posing.
  • Galizia added that other men in the calendar are likely not clergy, which calls the publisher’s vetting into question.
  • The calendar is a tourist staple at Roman newsstands for about ten euros with a different supposed priest each month, and news outlets report no formal response from the publisher or Church.