I have discussed the continuing practice of indulgences in Catholicism a few times on this blog, including The Roman Catholic Doctrine of Indulgences. Needless to say, the Council of Trent (1545-1563) did not get rid of indulgences. Furthermore, the recent catechism has a number of paragraphs dedicated to indulgences, speaking positively about them and their efficacy (click here).
The Jesuit theologian and priest, F.M. De Zulueta, wrote the following about the “Last Blessing” or “Papal Blessing” which confers a Plenary (“full”) Indulgence at the hour of a faithful Catholic’s death, showing again that Indulgences were, and are still today, alive and well in Post-Tridentine Catholicism:
The Papal Blessing—Obsequies—Burial
The ‘Last Blessing,’ or ‘Papal Blessing,’ conferring a Plenary Indulgence at the hour of death on certain conditions, is a mark of the paternal solicitude of Christ’s Vicar on earth for his dying children. The blessing comes from the Pope, who deputes the Bishops to communicate it, and these, in turn, sub-depute their priests to deliver it.
As Catholics are aware, there are also Plenary Indulgences for the hour of death attached to various devout practices and to the use of certain devotional objects—e.g., to Confraternities, Scapulars, Crucifixes blessed for this purpose, Rosaries blessed with the Apostolic Indulgences, etc. But these Plenary Indulgences differ from the one belonging to the Last Blessing in this—that they can be gained by the sick person without the presence or ministration of any priest. In this way they have the advantage of being obtainable y one dying very suddenly before a priest can be procured.
The Last Blessing is said to be conferred in articulo mortis—i.e., at the very point of death. But this expression refers to the moment when the Indulgence takes effect (for the remission of temporal punishment due to sin), and not necessarily to the time when the blessing is given by the priest. There is no need to wait till death is imminent in order to impart it. It can be given as soon as it is lawful to administer the Last Sacraments, and it is conferred after these. Should the patient survive many weeks after receiving the Blessing, the Plenary Indulgence is able to remit the debts of temporal punishment accumulated since the priest administered the rite, as well as those incurred previous to that administration during a lifetime.
The Last Blessing is imparted only once in the same illness, although the cessation and recurrence of danger during its course may have justified a repetition of Extreme Unction. It is still given but once in the same illness, albeit the invalid have a right to a Plenary Indulgence for death on several distinct titles, such as those just mentioned.
Certain conditions are attached: (1) The sick person must accept death willingly from the hand of God, which, according to Benedict XIV., is the main condition. Acts of sorrow for sin, fervent acts of the love of God, are recommended by some authors in order to make the Plenary Indulgence more secure. (2) The Holy Name ‘Jesus’ must be invoked once—in the heart, at least, if articulation be impossible.
Moreover, according to the terms in which the faculty for imparting the Blessing is nowadays usually couched, previous reception of the Sacraments of Penance, Viaticum, and Extreme Unction would seem to be required—that is to say, when the circumstances of the case admit of this.
This Papal Blessing and Indulgence may be obtained also in another way. By a grant, dated March 9, 1904, Pius X. has extended to all the faithful a valuable privilege, by which any person may gain once, but at any time during life, the Plenary Indulgence for the moment of death. The conditions are that he receive Holy Communion on any day he may choose, and then recite the following Act of Resignation in the dispositions which it expresses: ‘O Lord my God, whatever manner of death is pleasing to Thee, with all its anguish, pains, and sorrows, I now accept from Thy hands with a resigned and willing spirit.
Thus, one may choose some favourable opportunity, when in exceptionally good dispositions—e.g., at the close of a Mission or Retreat—for performing this Acts after Communion, and so make more sure of receiving the full benefit of the Indulgence when the moment of death arrives.
It will be noticed that there is no mention in this grant of the second condition given above—the invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus.
N.B.—The prayers ‘For those in their agony’ may be said by anyone. (F.M. De Zulueta, Letters on Christian Doctrine (Second Series), Part II, Volume III [5th ed.; London: Burns Oates and Washbourne Ltd, 1921], 34-36)
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