The Vatican has revealed that Antonio Gramsci, the founder of
Italian Communism and an icon of the Left, reverted to Roman
Catholicism on his deathbed.
Archbishop Luigi De Magistris, former head of the Apostolic
Penitentiary of the Holy See, which deals with confessions,
indulgences and the forgiveness of sins, said Gramsci had
'died taking the Sacraments.' He had asked the nuns
attending him in hospital to let him kiss an image of the infant
Jesus, the Archbishop said.
Rumours that Gramsci had converted back to his Roman Catholic
faith had never until now been confirmed, and the Italian Left had
also remained silent on the issue. 'But that is how it
was', Archbishop De Magistris told Vatican Radio in November
2008: 'Gramsci returned to the faith of his infancy.'
http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/2009/mar2009p8_2987.html
I have done more research on this and it is true. The Left across the world is in denial on this point. That Gramsci converted undoes all his years of hating the Church, religion, and even the culture of the West.
I have come to the conclusion that Gramsci's conversion was real and that the Vatican has proof.
Another great deathbed conversion is Jean-Paul Sartre, and I quote myself on this from another post.
This conversion is not urban myth. When I was at Notre Dame in 1980-81,
Father John S. Dunne, a noted writer and teacher, told me personally
that a priest friend of his was called to Sartre’s deathbed, where the
noted atheist confessed his sins and came into the Church. Father Dunne
also claimed that a fiery article by Simone Beauvoir appeared condemning
Sartre’s “fall into superstition” at his end. I have to find the
article by Beauvoir.
There is more here on this discussion.
http://bridgesandtangents.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/sartres-death-bed-conversion/
There are many people who converted, repented, re-verted back to Catholicism when facing death. I myself consider this grace one of the most wonderful gifts a person can be given.
Daily, in the Hail Mary, we pray for the grace of a happy death. Read my comments in the posts on Providence and Predestination by Garrigou-Lagrange.