1 mother, 1 medical student, 1 newborn, 1 baptism

On Sunday 13th May, many people across the world celebrated Mothers' Day. On Wednesday 9th, Pope Francis had continued his catechesis on the Sacrament of Baptism. Here is a a story from a young medical student in East Africa helping mothers get their babies baptised.

Yesterday, we had a mother who was delivered by cesarean section. The baby was anencephalic i.e. had no brain and a poorly developed skull. It was evident the child would not survive very long though she still had respiratory movements.

Luckily enough, the mother is Catholic. This morning, we had the chance to baptize the child (gave her the name Mary) with the mother's consent. There's now the joy of knowing she's a child of God and that she'll intercede for us when she goes to heaven.

Were it not for the talks on Christian doctrine I received in the centre of Opus Dei, I would never have thought of suggesting to the mother to have her newborn baptised.