This is rich:

Italy’s coronavirus outbreak is one of the world’s deadliest, and while the doctors and nurses on the northern Italian front line have become symbols of sacrifice against an invisible enemy, priests and nuns have also joined the fight.

Beg pardon?

No, New York Times, priests and nuns have not “joined the fight” against the virus. I’m happy to give credit where due, so let’s get to it. These men and women are certainly brave — and perhaps more than a little reckless — to walk into homes and hospitals where people lay dying from the virus. We can praise their sense of duty, and acknowledge that given their belief system and that of the patients, they do provide solace. That’s nothing to (pardon me) sneeze at.

But reading from the Bible does not return people to health. Rubbing holy oil on their foreheads does not heal them. Prayer will not provide a cure.

That’s the job of doctors and scientists.

To state that there’s equivalency between priests and doctors in conquering the virus doesn’t make it so. In fact, it’s a cheap editorial conjuring trick.

Let’s review.

This:

… isn’t the equivalent of this:

Just as this:

… isn’t the equal of this:

And this:

… isn’t anywhere near the same as this:

None of these facts should be outside the grasp of most newspaper editors.

(Rosary photo via Shutterstock; vial photo by Stefan Heesch at Unsplash; Bible photo by Priscilla Du Preez at Unsplash; medical-textbooks photo via Shutterstock; cross photo via Shutterstock; hypodermic-needle photo by CDC at Unsplash.)

