The lifeless body of a male infant was discovered in a baby box at a church in southern Italy on Thursday. The local priest, Father Antonio Ruccia, said that the alarm designed to notify him when a baby is left in the box had failed to go off.
The baby, believed to be around a month old, was found at the San Giovanni Battista church in Bari, located in the Puglia region.
Father Ruccia explained to Italian media that whenever a baby is placed in the cradle, an alarm is supposed to send an alert to his phone. However, he said, “I was in Rome, but my phone, connected to the crib, didn’t ring.”
The infant was found by a local funeral home director who happened to pass by the church. He noticed that the door to the baby box was slightly open and immediately informed the priest. The priest then called the police, who arrived to make the grim discovery.
The baby box is equipped with a heating system that activates automatically once a baby is placed inside. The system is also supposed to send a notification to the priest. However, authorities have not yet determined if the heating system functioned properly or if the baby had already passed away when placed in the box, according to the Bari police.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine the time and cause of death, a police spokesperson told CNN.
Police believe the alarm failed because the door to the small room housing the baby box was not fully closed, preventing the alert from reaching the priest.
The last time the Puglia baby box was used was in December 2023, when a baby girl, later named Maria Grazia, was left there.
Father Ruccia commented on the situation, saying, “There can be no judgment in these events. No one can imagine the pain of realizing they cannot care for their child.”
Baby boxes have been in place throughout Italy since 2006. They allow women to anonymously leave babies they cannot care for in heated cribs at churches or hospitals. This practice traces its roots back to the 13th century when women would place their babies in a “ruota” or wheel, a device embedded in the wall of church-run children’s homes. The practice continued until the 1950s when these homes were closed. It was later replaced by Italian laws allowing women to give birth anonymously and leave their babies at hospitals without facing legal consequences.
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