A newborn boy was found abandoned in the nativity scene of a New York Catholic church.
He wasn’t wrapped in swaddling clothes but he was lying in a manger, so new to the world that his umbilical cord was still attached.
A baby boy was discovered in the nativity scene at a New York City Catholic church on Tuesday, perfectly healthy and wailing his little head off.
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“The maintenance man heard the baby crying and went over to the crèche, where Jesus will be, and saw the baby there,” Father Christopher Heanue told INSIDE EDITION.
Police are searching for the baby’s mother. The infant was in the makeshift cradle for only a few minutes.
He was found inside Holy Child Jesus Church in Queens, where church members had put up the manger scene on Monday. But the baby Jesus had yet to take up residence in the crèche.
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“The beautiful thing about this is that the crèche was put up earlier than it was supposed to be,” the priest said. “God works in his own way, that this mother would come into the church and see the perfect crèche and put this baby (in it).”
Heanue said staff called 911 and the baby was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was doing fine.
“I’m moved because Pope Francis has called this a year of mercy and what a better way to be merciful and find a home in need,” the priest said.
Several members of his church have already expressed interest in the baby.
“There are people in the parish who would love to adopt the child,” said Heanue. “They believe as I do, this child was left in the church for a reason. So we would all like to see the child stay within the church.”
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