Did an Italian Priest Really Give Up His Respirator for a Younger Patient?

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — An elderly Italian priest who contracted the coronavirus reportedly offered his respirator to a younger patient and died due to the illness late on Sunday (March 22).

It’s a story that’s made headlines around the world and been shared on social media as an example of living out the teachings of Jesus.

But so far, no one can confirm that the story is true.

Neither the hospital nor a colleague from the priest’s parish could confirm the news account.

The Rev. Giuseppe Berardelli, 72, was a priest at the Parish of San Giovanni Battista in northern Italy since 2006. He died this week, one of a growing number of Italians who’ve succumbed to COVID-19.

His town, Bergamo, is among the epicenters of the pandemic, which has already claimed the lives of 6,820 people in the country and infected over 69,000 people.

“He died as a priest,” an unnamed health professional who works at the retirement home of San Giuseppe in Casnigo, the small town where Berardelli died, told the local paper Araberara.

“I am deeply moved by the fact that the archpriest of Casnigo, Don Giuseppe Berardelli — for whom the parish community had bought a respirator — gave it up of his own volition to hand it to someone younger than he,” the health professional said, according to published accounts.

The custodian of the Arcipresbiterial church of San Giovanni Battista told Religion News…