As Italy’s coronavirus crisis continues, four small towns in the southern Italian province of Salerno have been placed under quarantine due to an outbreak of the pandemic that reportedly originated in a spiritual retreat led by the Neocatechumenal Way, one of the “new movements” in the Catholic Church.
The Feb. 29-March 1 retreat held in a hotel in the small southern Italian town of Atena Lucana attracted roughly 20 participants, among them a 76-year-old man from the nearby town of Bellizzi, who later died on March 10 from the coronavirus. His wife reportedly has also tested positive for the disease and has been placed under quarantine.
Since then, 16 other cases of infection have cropped up in four towns where residents participated in that retreat, as well as another retreat with some of the same people held in a nearby location March 4. Read more