VATICAN CITY, DEC. 15, 2004 (Zenit.org).- What happens to the souls of children who die before birth, or shortly after birth, or are aborted? Questions of this nature are ever more frequent, to the point that John Paul II himself, on Oct. 7, asked the International Theological Commission to study the matter more profoundly. To better understand the matter at stake, ZENIT interviewed Father Peter Gumpel, a theologian and historian who has studied the matter since the 1950s. "The fate in the hereafter of souls that have not been baptized seems to be a marginal problem, but in reality it...
