Last Wednesday morning in the bitter cold, a baby was born just yards away from the Vatican in Italy.
The woman and her baby caught the attention of Pope Francis’s charity office, which offered them a year of free shelter, according to Reuters.
At 2:30 a.m., the 35 year-old Romanian mother went into labor, according to the police. Policewoman Maria Capone, who assisted in delivering the baby girl, said she and the other police officers used their jackets to cover the mother and child and protect them from the frigid cold until an ambulance arrived.
“I think it was close to zero,” Capone said.
One policeman reported,“The baby regained color on her face after we covered her.”
After learning about the birth, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, head of Pope Francis’ charity office, visited the mother. According to a Vatican spokesman, the Archbishop offered her a year of accommodation in an apartment owned by the Church, completely free of charge.
This charitable act is not uncharacteristic of Pope Francis. He is known for reaching out to the poor and troubled. He also encourages the Christian community to protect life in all stages.
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Soon after he was elected, Pope Francis offered his second blessing as pope to a pregnant woman and her unborn baby. A few weeks later, he stunned the world when he made a personal phone call to a woman who was pregnant out of wedlock and encouraged her to reject abortion and treat her child as “a gift from God.”
As LifeNews previously reported, Pope Francis insists that every life is a gift to cherish, “Ever present within each of them [children] is life as gift and responsibility.”
The Vatican’s offer to help this mother and her newborn daughter is another example of Pope Francis’ continued support of mothers.
