"Hot" Roman Catholic Priests Calendar

Yeah, I know, that title is disturbing, but that is how it showed up in my email.

The new 2014 "Calendario Roman" by Piero Pazzo is now available.  This calendar in Italy is known at the "Hot priest" calendar according to one source (warning: some of the other content maybe offensive)

    "While photographer Piero Pazzi's "Roman Priest Calendar" isn't serving up the salaciousness of the Orthodox Priest calendar, it does have one thing going for it:
Pazzi assures us his priests are real! And they are GORGEOUS. So what's got these sexy holy men stepping in front of Pazzi's lens?"

The reason for the calendar?  Roman Catholic and Vatican trivia apparently.  

The Roman Catholic priests allow themselves to be photographed and placed in the calendar to share Vatican facts according to the photographer.  

But the trivia isn't want people on the streets are talking about.  Nope, the local media and people are caught up in how 'sexy' and 'gorgeous' the holy men are.  Nothing mentioned by buyers about chastity or celibacy of the priests. Nope, just how 'sexy' these men of the Church are. I'm guessing Pope Francis didn't make it to 2014 calendar.  If the reason for the calendar was to promote information about the Vatican wouldn't a few snap shots of the Pope be more in keeping with the stated reason for the calendar?

I hope the priests don't encourage anyone to refer to them as "sexy holy men" or "strapping young men of the cloth" (as stated below).  It's just wrong in my personal opinion.  Sends an entirely WRONG message of "holy men" and God's Roman Catholic priests.

It's never right to make a human being into an object- certainly not "holy men of the cloth".

I've got nothing against a good cause or informing people about the Vatican. I do have a problem with USING priests as objects.  Let's face it, the calendar is NOT to educate people, it's to make objects out of "holy men of the cloth" so people can gawk at them. 

The photographer's website states:

WHAT IS IT?The CALENDARIO ROMANO 2014 joint to pictures it also contains generical informations about the Vaticano State
WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT ?in all kioscos and souvenir store of Rome and Venice or ordering it by e-mail: info@calendarioromano.org

 According to "The Local: Italy's News in English"...

"It is officially called the Calendario Romano, or Roman Calendar. But on the streets of Rome, the annual line-up of strapping young men of the cloth is better known as the "hot priest calendar".

Anyone else offended by "strapping young men of the cloth" description?

See last year's 2013 Roman Catholic priest calendar: HERE
  
I truly have no idea what this 2013 priest (right image) is being fed during what looks like mass but it doesn't look like the Eucharist to me.

The Roman Catholic priests do not give their names to the photographer, just their permission to photograph them and use the photos for the calendar.  This photographer has been publishing these priest calendars since 2003 and they seem to be quite the item in Italy.

In this Catholics opinion this is wrong and I would hope SOMEONE at the Vatican would at the very least use this to TEACH that people are not objects and Roman Catholic priests are not to be used at "sexy" objects.

According to Jesus, merely looking with lust at someone causes you to sin (Matt.5:28), so WHY on earth would any KNOWING (assuming they know about this since its been going on for a decade) clergy member allow themselves to be part of such a thing?

Call me a prude, I don't care.  I don't like and I think it's wrong.

In Christ,

Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner


link: http://instinctmagazine.com/post/vaticans-hottest-real-priests-are-display-2014-roman-priest-calendar

link: http://www.calendarioromano.org/03.html
link: http://www.calendarioromano.org/
link: http://www.thelocal.it/20131120/hot-priests-grace-romes-calendar