For more than two decades, one of the most popular Roman souvenirs has been a calendar with pictures of attractive young priests. And for most of the years, the first page of the calendar has featured the picture of today’s 39-year-old Giovanni Galizia. He is young and has a mysterious smile, staring into the lens at the church in his hometown of Palermo.
In fact, he is not quite old enough. It turned out that he was only 17 years old at the time of the photo shoot and that he had only once in his life put on a tuxedo. Giovanni Galizia’s photo has never been a priest.
Just like most of the other boys featured in the black and white photos, it was revealed by La Repubblica. “I was 17 years old. I was in Palermo, where I come from, when they asked me if I wanted to participate in this project.
I said yes, definitely. And then I suddenly found myself in front of you.”
Topics: #calendar #old #priests
