On New Year’s Day, the priest Antonio Ruccia sat in Rome, unaware of what had just happened in the church of his home parish.
Over 40 miles away, in Bari on the Italian east coast, a dead infant lay wrapped in a pale blue blanket in the “cradle of life.”
– My phone, which is connected to the cradle, never rang, says the priest Italian media.
To help women
The Church of San Giovanni in Bari, Italy, like many other churches in the country, has so-called “baby boxes” placed adjacent to them.
The aim is to help women who cannot take care of their children. In the boxes, they can anonymously place newborns, who are then taken care of by authorities.
When a child is left in the cradle, a sensor system is activated, which in turn alerts the priest via mobile phone.
But on New Year’s Day, something went terribly wrong.
“Can’t judge anyone”
The dead child, a boy estimated to be about a month old, was found by an undertaker after a church service.
What went wrong has not been clarified. An autopsy is to be conducted to answer if it was the system that broke or if the boy was already dead when he was left in the cradle.
The last time the cradle was used was in December 2023, when a well-preserved girl was found.
– We cannot judge anyone in these cases. It is impossible to imagine the pain behind the realization that you cannot take care of someone so small, said the priest Antonio Ruccia at the time.