seriate

A year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic in northern Italy was spiralling and the province of Bergamo, where Seriate is located, was one of the hardest hit.

The caption of the photo on the wall reads: “The parish community of Seriate remembers the hospitality given to 270 deceased people from all over Bergamo province ... Our welcoming in the house of the Lord was intended to be a caress of prayer in the name of the families.”

“For me it was a nightmare, but I didn’t have the opportunity to think about it a lot because when you find yourself in the middle of an emergency you have to rush and act according to your instinct,” Carminati, the senior priest in Seriate, said.

“Consoling so many families created a great sadness in my heart,” Carminati said, after celebrating Mass recently in one of Seriate’s other churches.

A year on, nearly 3,500 people have died of the disease in Bergamo province so far, several hundred in Seriate.