Two Catholic Doctors in Bergamo Urgently Ask for Your Prayers

The doctors plead for the life of a colleague who has four children and give details of the dramatic situation in the northern Italian town hardest hit by the virus.

An image on the side of a building in Bergamo, Italy, March 22, 2020.
An image on the side of a building in Bergamo, Italy, March 22, 2020. (photo: YouTube)

Two Catholic doctors in a hospital in Bergamo, the northern Italian town heavily struck by the coronavirus, have issued an urgent and heartfelt appeal for spiritual support.

The doctors, who are married to each other but have asked not to be named, are cardiologists in the town, located in Italy’s Lombardy region, where they describe the situation as “dramatic” and where each family has suffered at least one death. 

Medical staff in the region, already under great pressure because of the number of patients, are also being infected and a number have died.  

The doctors, who are practicing Catholics, have asked as many people as possible to pray Rosaries, and priests to offer Masses for them. 

A friend of theirs, British doctor and president of National Association of the Catholic Families, Thomas Ward, asked if they had any particular intentions. They replied: 

“Thank you for your suggestion which today seemed to me like a sign from God. I ask you to pray for a colleague who has COVID-19. He is intubated and has the complication of a pulmonary embolism. He is a surgeon, is 48 years old and has four children. His wife has already lost her father to the virus. He is a generous and devout man and an excellent colleague ... he must live! I thank you for all that your prayer will achieve. 

“As you know from the media, the situation in Bergamo is dramatic and in all families in the town there has been at least one death. Entire villages have been decimated, especially of the elderly. Retirement homes have become traps and many young people who are helping the elderly have also fallen ill.  My patients, who all have underlying heart problems are not able to fight this infection as they are already weak and very many are dying. It is the Apocalypse. Prayer is our hope. God is everywhere and Our Lady is at the foot of the cross and of all our crosses.”