Mom Who Left Baby in Manger Won't Be Charged

Authorities in New York City have decided that it would be pointless to file charges against the woman who abandoned her newborn baby boy in the middle of a church's Nativity scene. Police were able to track her down with the help of footage from the store where she bought a towel to wrap him in before leaving him at Holy Child Jesus Church on Monday, reports the New York Daily News, but the Queens DA announced Wednesday night that she had been interviewed and he has decided against criminal charges because she followed the spirit, if not the letter, of the "Safe Haven" law that allows infants under 30 days old to be left in safe locations.

The mother didn't notify authorities as the law requires, the DA said in a statement, but she "felt her newborn child would be found safely in the church and chose to place the baby in the manger because it was the warmest place in the church, and further she returned the following morning to make certain that the baby had been found." Parish priest Christopher Heanue tells the New York Times that he prays the story will make people "appreciate the gifts of life." The "providential part of this," he says, is that the manger had just been assembled, even though he hadn't planned for it to go up so early in the season. "We should pray the baby gets a proper home," he says, adding that he would be very pleased to see it stay in the community. (More Nativity scene stories.)