Vatican City, Jan 21 (IANS/AKI): In a warm gesture, Pope Francis has offered to house a homeless Romanian woman who delivered a girl in front of St. Peter's Square.
With the help of a female police officer, the 37-year-old woman delivered the baby on a pavement in front of St Peter's Square, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said on Wednesday.
The baby, named Irene, weighed 2.9 kg and is said to be in good health.
She and her mother were taken to the nearby Santo Spirito hospital and were visited there by the papal almoner, Konrad Krajewski, Lombardi said.
Francis said the woman and her baby may stay for 12 months at a shelter run by an order of Catholic nuns in Rome's western Primavalle district, Lombardi stated.