In Bergamo, an elderly priest gave up the respirator his parishioners bought for him in order to save the lives of younger victims.
A 72-year-old priest who gave his respirator to a younger Covid-19 patient he did not know has died from coronavirus. Father Giuseppe Berardelli, the main priest in the town of Casnigo, refused a respirator which had been bought for him by his parishioners and instead gave it to a younger patient.
He died last week in Lovere, Bergamo – one of the worst-hit cities in Italy’s ongoing coronavirus crisis.
“He was a simple, straightforward person, with a great kindness and helpfulness towards everyone, believers and non-believers,” Giuseppe Imberti, the mayor of Casnigo, said in a statement, according to the Italian news website Araberara.
Although there was no funeral for the priest, residents of the town reportedly applauded from their balconies as his coffin was taken for burial.
Meanwhile, a reader writes from Florida:
Grocery stores in Florida have enacted a special early shopping time for “elderly” shoppers. Of course elderly is now considered 65 and up. Boomers line up in the hundreds, ignoring social distancing, and go through the store like a plague of locusts. Forget women and children, gotta give the Boomers first dibs.
Typical. All too typical. Because God hates the wicked, it is good to hate the Boomer. As with Father Giuseppe, there can be little doubt about what god they serve. The contrast demonstrates that being a Boomer is more than just a range of temporal mileage, it is, more importantly, a state of soul.