Pope Francis has telephoned a woman who wrote to him to tell her he will baptise her unborn after she refused to have an abortion.

Shop worker Anna Romano, 35, was on holiday when she received the call from the Argentinian pope, who was elected in March this year.

Anna, from Arezzo near Florence, central Italy, had written to Pope Francis earlier this summer to describe her turmoil at having discovered she was pregnant by a man, who unknown to her, was already married with a child and who demanded she terminate the pregnancy.

Anna, from Arezzo near Florence, central Italy, had written to Pope Francis earlier this summer to describe her turmoil at having discovered she was pregnant by a man, who unknown to her, was already married with a child and who demanded she terminate the pregnancy.

‘I told him that I would not have an abortion and told him to get out of my life.’

Anna added how she was ‘in a desperate and anguished state’ and that she was writing to Pope Francis because she had ‘no-one else to turn to, after being left humiliated and betrayed’.

‘He reassured me and said a child was a gift from God, a sign of Divine Providence and that I would never be left alone. He said that as Christians we should never be afraid.

‘He told me I had been very brave and strong for my unborn child. I told him that I wanted to baptise the baby when it was born but I was afraid as I was divorced and a single mother but he said he would be my spiritual father and he would baptise my baby.

‘I don’t know the sex of the baby but if the Pope does baptise it and it’s a boy I have no doubt of his name – Francis.’

A Vatican spokesman said: ‘I know nothing of this telephone call but then again we knew nothing of the others. The Pope doesn’t tell us when he makes these calls – he just does them and then we find out about them later.’