Conception

At a press conference in Rome on November 6, Vatican officials announced plans for a conference on the beginnings of human life, to be held at the Regina Apostolorum university on November 15-17.

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That's good I think. Church teaching on the beginnings of the soul at conception need to be clarified. Currently it's that the human soul is created at the moment of conception which of course is true. But some allowance perhaps should be made for the majority of conceptions that do not result in birth, but are instead naturally aborted by the woman's body.

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It doesn't seem reasonable that all these little souls are destined for the old limbo.

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Perhaps there is something intrinsic in the to-be-aborted fetus that precludes the soul's creation.

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Perhaps the soul is created at some stage later than conception.

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Perhaps there's some regeneration going on where the little soul wanders around for a bit waiting for a better conception circumstance.

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Or perhaps it's as it now stands, that all these little created souls are eternal, yet never live much of a lived life on earth.

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Anyway, the pro-abortionists make great debate headway when they bring up the fact that most conceptions end in abortions by the body. Some more clarity from the church would be welcome.

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link

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Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council, explained that the purpose of the STOQ project is to "contribute to dialogue between the various areas of research and study which have, in the modern age, gradually become separated from one another." In this case, the conference is designed to shed light on the discussions of artificial fertilization, embryonic stem-cell research, genetic manipulation, and other issues currently in the forefront of bioethical debates.

In 2009, Archbishop Ravasi told reporters, the Vatican's effort to promote discussion of scientific topics will take another step, with a conference on evolution, marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species. That conference will be hosted by the Gregorian University.