Homeless woman gives birth near Vatican, receives aid offer

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican says it is offering a place to stay to a homeless woman who gave birth near St. Peter's Square.

She's thinking about it.

Italian police say a patrol stopped to help the woman after she gave birth in a square just beyond Vatican territory about 2 a.m. Wednesday, when temperatures were hovering around freezing. They covered her with their jackets and called an ambulance that took her to a nearby hospital.

Pope Francis' charity official, Monsignor Konrad Krajewski, visited mother and baby in hospital. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Krajewski offered the woman a place for a year at a Vatican-owned residence for mothers and babies in need.

Lombardi says the woman hasn't decided whether to accept.