Joint funeral for gay student couple (3)

(ANSA) - Vicenza, January 4 - Alex Ferrari and Luca Bortolaso, the young gay student couple from Vicenza killed by carbon-monoxide fumes at Ferrara di Monte Baldo near Verona on Tuesday, are to have a joint funeral, it was decided on Thursday.
    The rite will take place in the church of San Giovanni Battista in Arzignano near Vicenza on Friday at 2.30 pm local time. The funeral will be celebrated by the men's respective parish priests.
    The diocese said Thursday the joint funeral "meets a precise desire of the two families to which the Church in this moment of immense pain wants to be close with the words of faith.
    "faced with the death of two young people, all other comments appear inopportune, at the least".
    Ferrari and Bortolaso, 21, died after inhaling fumes from a defective wood-burning brazier.
    Two young women who were with them were not affected because they were sleeping in a different room, heated by an electric fire.
    The incident took place in a holiday home.