New Rediscover: Hour host 7 • Legislative preview 10-11 • Immigrant outreach 14 January 12, 2017 Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Cathedral custodian: ‘I’d adopt him if I could’ Newborn safe after being abandoned at Cathedral Jan. 4 By Maria Wiering The Catholic Spirit
Nathan Leonhardt, a custodian at the Cathedral of St. Paul who found a newborn there Jan. 4, crouches in the spot where he discovered the baby in a laundry basket. Dave Hrbacek/ The Catholic Spirit
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athedral of St. Paul custodian Nathan Leonhardt was doing his typical evening rounds following 5:15 Mass Jan. 4 when he pushed open a tall double door leading to the Dayton Avenue exit. The door bumped a round, green plastic laundry basket sitting on the foyer’s landing. Leonhardt thought it might be someone’s laundry; homeless men and women often visit the church. Maybe somebody felt embarrassed and left it there while they prayed, he thought. The 26-year-old walked down a short flight of steps to lock the exterior exit, and climbed the stairs again. He looked in the basket — a fleece-tied Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles blanket. He gingerly felt around the blanket to “make sure nothing was in there,” and still thought it was just clothes. He decided to finish locking up and check later to make sure the basket was gone. Then he heard a noise. A small cry. He paused, processing the sound. A puppy? he thought. The father of a 4-year-old, he was familiar with a newborn’s cry. But it couldn’t be ... . He pulled the blanket back. A baby. Leonhardt first saw his little face. He was naked with a little fuzz on his head, his umbilical cord cut short and clamped with a black binder clip. He was still covered with wet blood and mucus from birth. The baby was in an awkward position in the small basket, so Leonhardt picked him up. The baby was warm, but his hands and feet had a purple tinge. The temperature outside hovered just above zero, and the entryway wasn’t as warm as the Cathedral interior. Holy water has been known to freeze in its marble fonts. He called Father John Ubel, the Cathedral’s rector. “Get over here right away. There’s a baby here,” Father Ubel recalled him saying. Father Ubel, who had just sat down for dinner, bolted from the table, abandoning a bowl of chili. He dialed 911 before putting on his coat. It was 6:02 p.m. He met Leonhardt at the Sacred Heart Chapel near the Dayton entrance, and the pair quickly moved the
Watch Leonhardt describe finding the newborn at www.facebook.com/ TheCatholicSpirit
baby to the sacristy, locking the door behind them. They didn’t know exactly what to make of the situation, Father Ubel said. The priest’s first concern was the baby’s health. He told the 911 dispatcher that the baby looked fine, but he made it clear he was out of his wheelhouse. He wondered for a moment if he should baptize the baby, and then realized he must. With water from the cruet used at Mass, he baptized the infant, making Leonhardt the godfather. He named him Nathan John. Leonhardt wasn’t expecting that. “I was shocked. That melted my heart,” he said. Father Ubel held the baby while Leonhardt left the sacristy check to see if police had come to the Dayton entrance. Three times Father Ubel opened the heavy sacristy door to look for the police arriving on Selby Avenue, and each time the baby cried at the cold. “I’m like, ‘C’mon, this is Minnesota, you’ve got to get used to this,”’ he said with a laugh. When the police came, they noted his head was wet. “Well, I can explain that,” Father Ubel said he told
them. “It’s baptismal water.” By 6:30 p.m., the baby was in an ambulance bound for Children’s Hospital in St. Paul, where Father Ubel later visited. He didn’t expect to be able to see the newborn, and he didn’t, but wanted to show support and concern for the baby. He was able to connect with a social worker, who pointed him to Ramsey County Child Protective Services for information about the process of placing the baby with a family. Police later told him that the baby may have been born slightly premature and weighed around 5 pounds. He was doing well at the hospital.
Compassion for baby’s mother Nothing was left with the baby to indicate his origins, save the blanket, a thin gray women’s hooded sweatshirt and a couple of adult-size socks. Neither the Cathedral nor Dayton Avenue has cameras that would indicate the time the baby was left or the identity of the person who left him. Please turn to NEWBORN on page 5
ALSO inside
Class act
Language barrier
Hopeful presence
The University of St. Thomas’ first Spanish-speaking class to earn a lay ministry certificate in theology graduated in December. — Page 5
A priest from Thailand spent Christmas with the Twin Cities’ Hmong community, hearing the confessions of those who only speak their native language. — Page 6
An encounter with a woman who changed her mind about abortion continues to inspire a St. Kate’s student and sidewalk counselor. — Page 12