Vatican II taught that at the first moment of their existence all humans receive an invitation to communion with God.

Tuesday, 1/22/13

Today we are asked to pray for unborn children. We used to be told that children who die without Baptism are confined to Limbo, but in recent times the Church has rejected that notion. Pope Benedict and a Church instruction from 2007 have taught that such infants would not be deprived of entrance to heaven or of enjoying the Beatific Vision. Rome has said that although we are bound to see baptism as essential for salvation God is not bound by any such regulations.

My own understanding of the condition of unborn children was strongly effected by paragraph 19 in the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

                  “The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion

                   with God. The invitation to commune with God is addressed to man as soon as

                   he comes into being.”

I would like our English translation of that Latin document to say, “The dignity of any human consists in his or her being called to communion with God.”

Anyway, since the Church teaches that God immediately invites every newly conceived infant to communion with him, the Church must feel that newly conceived infants somehow have the desire and the ability to wordlessly commune with their maker.