An Italian priest died of coronavirus after giving a respirator that his parishioners bought for him to a younger patient, it has been revealed.
Giuseppe Berardelli, 72, from Casigno in Italy’s hardest-hit Lombardy region, died in a local hospital in recent days after being diagnosed with the virus.
Berardelli had been given a respirator – which are in desperately short supply – by parishioners concerned about his health but he decided to give it to a younger patient who he didn’t know but was struggling to breathe because of the virus.
The exact age and condition of that patient is not known, but younger patients who are able to access respirators have a much greater chance of survival.
The extraordinary case was revealed by Jesuit priest James Martin, from the United States, who is also a consultant to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications.
Italian news magazine Araberara first reported the story.
Berardelli – a well-liked priest who had underlying health conditions – was remembered for his charity and his love of motorcycles.
Praising him on Twitter, Martin wrote: “Greater love has no person…” (Jn 15:13)
‘He is a “Martyr of Charity,” a saint like St. Maximilian Kolbe, who in Auschwitz volunteered to take the place of a condemned man with a family, and was killed.
Berardelli is among at least 60 priests in Italy who have died from coronavirus after the Pope called on them to “have courage” to attend to the sick.
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Some 5,476 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus across the nation, with more than 59,000 cases of the virus confirmed.
Among the dead are at least 60 priests, the majority of whom were over the age of 70, the Catholic Herald reported.
During a Mass in early March, Pope Francis, 83, called on Italian priests to “have courage to go out to the sick” amid the rapidly growing pandemic.
“We pray to God also for our priests, so they have courage to go out to the sick, bringing the strength of the Word of God and the Eucharist.
“To accompany the medical workers and volunteers in the work they are doing,” he said.
The names of 51 diocesan priests, who passed away after contracting coronavirus, were published by the Avvenire newspaper on Sunday.
The publication also noted that a further nine deaths had been reported in religious communities across Italy.
Some of these priests had underlying health conditions, it was said, and the youngest to die was 53-year-old Paolo Camminati – the parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes in Piacenza.
Five further priests, who tested positive for COVID-19, have also reportedly passed away in the same city.
