23 years. That is how long Giovanni Galizia has been staring out from the cover of one of the best-selling souvenirs around the Vatican. Millions of tourists bought it convinced that it portrayed real priests. The problem is that Galizia was never a priest, nor a seminarian, nor does he have any connection to the Catholic Church. Today he works as a flight attendant and coordinates crew training for a Spanish airline.
The story behind the image is just as unlikely. The photo was taken in Palermo, his hometown, in front of the Church of the Gesù di Casa Professa, and in his own words it started as a joke among friends. The company that produces the calendar, called Pazzi, distributes it independently and without any official affiliation with the Vatican. The product is formally called Calendario Romano, sells for between 8 and 10 euros in Rome’s tourist shops, and has reached countries as far away as South Korea.
It was the Roman newspaper La Repubblica that exposed the deception and sparked national attention. Galizia’s story also has a more disturbing episode: a digital outlet linked to the Vatican used his photograph to illustrate a story about a priest accused of blaspheming and selling drugs. He had to take legal action to get it removed.