Thank heavens for intuition; in this case, it could very well have just saved the life of an abandoned newborn, in the US.
Church worker Nathan Robert Leonhardt was locking up at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Minnesota on Wednesday night, after evening mass, when he came across a newborn baby – in a laundry basket.
Nathan’s curiosity was piqued when he stumbled upon the ‘laundry basket filled with clothes’ in the hallway, but he thought nothing of it, at first.
However, as he was getting ready to go home, he thought better of it and returned to go through the basket.
In a Facebook post, he recalled: “As soon as I went to go through the second set of doors, I heard crying. I literally froze for what felt like 10 seconds…I went and opened the blanket that was sticking out, and there was a newborn baby boy!”
The child was naked and wrapped in a fleece blanket, his umbilical cord cut and clamped with a binder clip. He appeared healthy.
Nathan informed a priest at the church, and they contacted the authorities immediately. The tot was baptised and christened Nathan John while the men waited for the police to arrive.
The baby was brought to hospital and will be released into child protective services in the coming days.
The priest who helped Nathan said in a statement that he is ‘profoundly grateful the baby is healthy and safe’.
Meanwhile, police have appealed for the baby’s mother to come forward and seek help.
