Unwanted Baby Given a Dignified Burial

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PROVIDENCE, June 16, 2015 (ChurchMilitant.com) - The child, named Baby Francis, was buried in a simple ceremony led by Providence, Rhode Island Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, assisted by a seminarian, with 20 people in attendance.

The baby boy of 20 weeks' gestation was found by a worker in a wastewater treatment facility in January. Francis was released to the bishop after a five-month investigation yielded no answers into what led to his being there.

Bishop Tobin named the baby Francis in honor of the Pope because of his condemnation of the "throwaway culture" of abortion that is so common nearly everywhere in the world. He prayed for Francis' parents so that God "will lift them up and help them through whatever difficult circumstances or sufferings that may have led them to this moment."

He continued, "We do know this is a child of God, created in the image and likeness of God, and it's in that spirit of honoring this child and all the children buried here and all the children who die of abortion, that we come together to bury Baby Francis today. ... Every child bears the face of Jesus; this child does as well."

A local funeral home donated the small white casket and its services, the diocesan Office of Life & Family provided the gravestone and flowers, while the Catholic Cemeteries Association donated the burial plot.

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