CNN recently reported that a one-month old lifeless body of a male infant was found in a box for abandoned babies at the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Bari, in the Puglia region of southern Italy.
It was undetermined, pending an autopsy, how long the baby was left in the box before being discovered by a local funeral home director who happened to be passing by and noticed the baby box’ door was ajar.
The parish priest, Father Antonio Ruccia, told Italian media that when anyone leaves a baby in the cradle, an alarm should immediately send him an alert “but my cell phone connected to the crib didn’t ring.”
The CNN report may be read in full HERE.
My brothers and sisters, this is horribly sad and tragic, beyond words, that the very box designed to hold newborns, despite having been used twice in recent years to save babies, was not routinely checked by parish staff and depended on a cellular telephone notification system.
I understand that it is easy to point fingers in a tragic situation such as this; however, if one is going to operate a system that directly involves the life or death of an infant, then it seems that the failure to have a local system for checking the box and/or some form of redundant or backup notification would represent common sense.
The mother was already so distraught that she abandoned her baby in a safe place, a church nonetheless, and now, likely knowing what happened, she must be incredibly hurt, if not traumatized.
I find it astonishing that according to the CNN article, and as also reported by The Christian Post HERE, Father Ruccia stated:
“There can be no judgment in these events. No one can imagine the pain behind realizing that you cannot take care of your little one.”
It is as if Ruccia was deflecting responsibility to the mother’s inability to care for her newborn instead of simply acknowledging the responsibility of the church to properly monitor the baby box.
Lord have mercy!
Despite the pain or loss we sometimes suffer in this world, the Bible tells us that God turns even the tragic things in life for our good and His glory:
Romans 8:28 (Amplified Bible)
“And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.”
