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Third “Window of Life” for Unwanted Babies Inaugurated in Poland

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

CZESTOCHOWA, Poland, January 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The “Window of Life of Blessed Edmund Bojanowski” was inaugurated in the city of Czestochowa during the Feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth last week, by Archbishop Stanislaw Nowak.

The "Window of Life" is a place where mothers who do not want to or cannot provide for their children, can anonymously and safely bring newborns in order for them to be cared for and placed for adoption.

The window established in Czestochowa, in the convent of the Sisters of the Congregation of Servants of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, is the third Window in Poland, following those in Krakow and Warsaw.

Archbishop Nowak, speaking at the inauguration ceremony, said, "The 'Window of Life of Blessed Edmund Bojanowski' is a sign of hope for newborn children. It is also a means of using goodness and mercy to fight abortion. In Poland, experts say that abortion has claimed the lives of nearly 20 million children in the past several years. The 'Window of Life' in Czestochowa is, therefore, the defense of human life,”

The Window of Life is built into the walls of the convent. It is a warm and ventilated room with a window which can be opened from the outside. As soon as the baby is placed inside the Window, a signal alerts the nuns who come to pick up the child and provide immediate medical care.

"The Window of Life was established to take note of a problem of babies thrown on the scrap heap," said Fr. Bogdan Kordula, a diocesan priest.

Mothers who hide their pregnancy and do not want to give birth at hospital can leave the baby in "The Window of Life" without any legal consequences, explained Fr. Kordula in a Krakow Post report.

"Unfortunately," he continued, "giving up an infant without resigning parents' rights lengthens the adoption procedure. However, we must remember that there is a child's life at stake. It is better for the infant to find a new family than die."

Dominican Fr. Krzysztof M¹del spoke of the long history of entrusting newborns to convents for the people of the Church to take care of temporarily.

"Already in the late medieval times in one of the sisters' convents in Rome the congregation opened their gate for such unloved, unneeded children. It was possible to leave the child there and have hope that it would be treated pretty well and later maybe adopted," Fr. M¹del said in a Radio Poland interview.

In the 18th Century in Warsaw, "the home of foundlings" was established by a French-born priest, Gabriel Peter Baudouin. The home's gate had a hole containing a trough. The baby was placed in the container, a string was pulled to move the container inside and a bell rang to summon someone to retrieve the infant. The home existed until the end of World War II.

The Window in Krakow, opened in 2006, has already saved the lives of nine infants, with one boy found on Dec. 4, wrapped in a blanket containing a picture of Saint Michael the Archangel and a piece of paper with the words "Gaspar, I am sorry. I love you. Mom."

The nuns of the convent have said that leaving a baby in "The Window" is an extreme situation, the last hope for unwanted children, and for the desperate women for whom the cloak of anonymity is important.

The organizations responsible for establishing the "Windows of Life", which include the Catholic dioceses of the cities involved and Caritas Polska, Poland's largest charity organization, have made this appeal: "All the mothers who cannot bring up your children - do not kill them, do no not throw them on the scrap heaps, please. Leave them here in 'The Window of Life.' Let them be adopted. Give them a chance for life and love."

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