Italian Priest Dies After Giving Ventilator To a Younger Coronavirus Patient
Richard Moorhead
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An account of an Italian Catholic priest diagnosed with coronavirus who died after giving up a ventilator to a younger patient began surfacing on Twitter on Monday morning.
Don Giuseppe Berardelli was a 72-year old Catholic priest of the Diocese of Bergamo, a city near Milan in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. His parish bought him a ventilator when he was diagnosed with the Chinese coronavirus disease, which is currently ravaging northern Italy more so than any place on Earth.
However, reports indicate Father Berardelli went on to give use of the ventilator a a younger coronavirus patient. He died within the past few days without use of the ventilator, giving up his life so that another person- someone he did not even know- could live.
Italian media corroborates the story, which began surfacing on English-language Twitter Monday.
This priest, Suffering from the coronavirus, gave up his ventilator to give to a younger patient and has died. His name was Don Giuseppe Berardelli. He was 72 years old, from Bergamo. pic.twitter.com/3N1ONtxFjO
— John Stone (@Johnthemadmonk) March 23, 2020
One famous saying of Christ in the Gospel of John describes the greatest form of love in the Christian religion. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Certainly, Father Berardelli’s actions are strongly reminiscent of this teaching of Jesus.
Italy continues to incur devastating daily coronavirus casualties. Deaths in the country from the disease have far surpassed that seen in the virus’ place of origin in China.
At least 28 Catholic Priests such as Father Berardelli have already been confirmed to die of the coronavirus.
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