Vatican City - The Roman Catholic Church is preparing to abolish limbo, the place between heaven and hell reserved for the souls of children who die before they have been baptised.
The Church's 30-member International Theological Commission yesterday began a week-long meeting to draw up a text for Pope Benedict XVI, which is expected to recommend dropping the concept from Church doctrine.
Limbo has been part of Catholic teaching since the 13th century and is depicted in paintings by artists such as Giotto and in literary works such as Dante's Divine Comedy.
The commission was first asked to study the after-life fate of the non-baptised by the late Pope John Paul II.
Pope Benedict is expected to approve the findings. In 1984, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the head of the Vatican's doctrinal department, he called limbo "a theological hypothesis".
"It is linked to the cause of original sin, but many babies die because they are victims," he said.
Swiss Cardinal Georges Cottier, Theologian of the Pontifical Household, yesterday told La Stampa: "We need to consider it and take into account the fact that many children die victims of modern evils - hunger in the world, for example, and many ills coming from huge social disorder and misery, let alone the fruits of abortion and such things."
More than six million children die of hunger every year in underdeveloped countries where the Church is keen to see its support continue to grow.
It is concerned that the concept of limbo may not impress potential converts.
The Church is aware that Muslims, for example, believe that all children go straight to heaven without passing any test.
The most decisive modern Catholic text on the issue dates back to 1905 when Pope Pius X stated: "Children who die without being baptised go to limbo, where they don't enjoy God, but don't suffer either, because whilst carrying the original sin... they don't deserve paradise but neither do they deserve hell or purgatory."
Catholics also believe that because fertilised ovum and aborted foetuses have human souls they, too, go to limbo.