A newborn baby found in church nativity manger at the Holy Child Jesus Church in New York City is doing well, Fox News reported. The crying infant, umbilical cord still attached, was found Monday by a custodian of the church, the same man who had set up the nativity scene before taking his lunch break.
While the custodian took a break from the nativity set up, he went to get lunch, but returned when he heard a baby crying. The baby was found in a manger scene where the church would put a replica of the baby Jesus during Christmas time.
Paramedics were called to the Queens Borough church, and took the healthy baby to Jamaica Hospital where the police are currently investigating the situation. The four-to-five-hour-old baby was listed in good condition at the hospital.
Under New York law, a parent may abandon a newborn baby anonymously at designated safe locations, under the Abandoned Infant Protection Act, but the person must hand the baby over to the appropriate person. Since this wasn't the case, investigators have begun looking for the person responsible for abandoning the child at the church.
"We can't imagine the desperation she must have gone through, but placing the baby in the manger where Jesus is born...she wanted him to be close to Christ," Brooklyn-Queens Diocese spokeswoman Rocio Fidalgo said, according to the New York Daily News. "We may never meet her, but our prayers are with her."
Police officers started canvassing the neighborhood around the church on Tuesday, checking surveillance cameras for recorded evidence of who abandoned the baby. Police have a video of a woman walking in to the church with a baby and leaving without the baby, according to the Inquisitr. Interviews in the neighborhood have already begun as well, officers are questioning potential witnesses in hopes of tracking down the baby's mother.
There is already a young couple at the church that would love to adopt the baby, says father Christopher Ryan Heanue, the church priest who placed clean towels around the baby while waiting on paramedics to arrive.
"I think it's beautiful," Father Heanue said. "A church is a home for those in need, and she felt, in this stable - a place where Jesus will find his home - a home for her child."
