It is with great sadness that we report a total of 67 Italian Catholic priests have passed away due to the novel coronavirus.
This disheartening revelation was made by the Avvenire newspaper on Wednesday, which also disclosed that the youngest among them, as listed by the Catholic Church-affiliated paper, was 53 years old.
“Priests, like everyone else, fall ill and succumb to death, perhaps even more so,” expressed the Avvenire in its report.
According to the paper, 22 of the casualties were reported in the Bergamo diocese, which is located at the epicenter of the outbreak and not far from the financial hub of Milan.
On March 10, when the pandemic was rapidly spreading across the country, Pope Francis urged priests to “have the courage to go out and see the sick.”