Jim Farmelant wrote:
>
> On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:33:45 -0500 Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> writes:
>> God, I hope this doesn't happen to me....
>> ___________________________________
>
> The atheist philosopher George Santayana spent his last years, living at the
> Convent of the Blue Nuns of the Little Company of Mary on the Celian Hill in
> Rome, where he was cared for by the sisters there. It is said that when he
> was dying, he informed his friends that there might be reports following his
> death that he had undergone a deathbed conversion, but that any such reports
> shouldn't be taken very seriously.
>
> In the case of Gramsci, I think it is quite possible that he had taken final
> sacraments and all that jazz that Catholics are supposed to do whey are about
> to kick off this mortal coil. But I suspect that by then, he was, if
> conscious at all, just barely so, and probably not at all cognizant of what
> was going on at that point. The Catholic Church, especially in those days
> was not shy about pushing such things to people on their deathbeds, on the
> supposition that no matter how far gone they might appear to be, they might
> still be sufficiently aware to make a last moment conversion.
>
> Jim F.