The Plenary Indulgence at the Point of Death

I. At the point of death only one plenary indulgence can be gained, although the dying person may have a right to it under various titles.¹ This holds even if the dying person, because of a less perfect disposition, acquires only partially the plenary indulgence which he acquires.

This indulgence, which is acquired at the last moment of life, cannot be applied to the departed (n. 530). An exception should more probably be made if the matter concerns one who has elicited the heroic act of charity; for he enjoys the privilege of applying to the departed all indulgences which he gains (n. 550).

II. Concerning the various titles from which a dying person can acquire a right to the said indulgence, it is useful to note these things:

1. It is to be advised that the dying person strive to make several titles his own; for it can happen that the conditions required for some title are not fulfilled, while the conditions established for another title are fulfilled; whence it happens that, with several titles in place, the hope of gaining the indulgence is increased. There is added the fact that several titles can occur without the intervention of a priest, and that the conditions to be fulfilled for different titles especially promote the disposition required for gaining the indulgence.

When an indulgence is granted under the customary conditions, there are required: confession, communion, invocation of the Name of Jesus by mouth, or, if that cannot be done, in the heart, and prompt acceptance of death in satisfaction for sins.

2. The principal titles are:²

a) The Apostolic blessing at the point of death, concerning which we spoke at length in n. 530 sq.

b) Enrollment in most confraternities.

In order that the indulgences be gained, the customary conditions are for the most part required (n. 494).

c) Enrollment in an Order, religious Congregation, or Third Order; this holds at least for most Congregations and Third Orders.

For a member of an Order and of a Third Order, confession and communion are required, or, if these cannot be done, a penitential invocation of the Holy Name by mouth, or, if that is impossible, in the heart.

d) Use of a cross or another object to which Papal indulgences are attached.

In order that someone acquire the indulgence: 1. he should carry the object upon himself or keep it decently in his house; 2. he should fulfill the customary conditions.

e) Use of a crucifix, that is, a cross with the image of Christ crucified, to which is attached a plenary indulgence at the point of death toties-quoties.³

In order that the indulgence be gained, the dying person: 1. should kiss or in some way touch the crucifix;⁴ 2. should fulfill the customary conditions.

f) Recitation of the acts of faith, hope, and charity.⁵

It is required only that someone has frequently elicited the said acts in life; it does not matter by what formula he has done this.

g) Recitation of the prayer: Lord my God, from now on I accept from your hand with a calm and willing mind whatever kind of death shall have pleased You, with all its distresses, punishments, and pains.⁶

It is required that, on whatever day he wishes, after confession and communion have been received, by reciting the said act with charity he accept death from God.

h) Sometimes the Supreme Pontiff grants by name a plenary indulgence to a dying person, with no condition established.

¹ Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, January 23, 1901, to II (Collectio, n. 2100).

² Cf. N. K. Stemmen, 1922, p. 72.

³ Toties-quoties, whose meaning in this case is that any one of Christ's faithful constituted at the point of death may be able to acquire a plenary indulgence through the use of this crucifix (Holy Office, June 10, 1914); in what sense this decree is to be understood was declared and confirmed by the declaration of the Sacred Penitentiary, June 23, 1929 (A.A.S. 1929, p. 510 sq.).

⁴ Holy Office, January 11, 1914.

⁵ Raccolta, I, p. 18; Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, January 22, 1756.

⁶ Raccolta, I, p. 148; Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, March 9, 1904.

"... Therefore, providing in this manner for the salvation of souls, insofar as it was permitted to Us in the Lord, We took care to extend and render easier the pious custom of applying the pontifical plenary indulgence to children of the Church placed at the point of death; and, the faculty having been permitted to Our venerable and beloved sons, the bishops and prelates of churches, to subdelegate other priests for this purpose, both in cities and in dioceses, We think that no small relief has been brought by Us to their anxieties and cares. Nevertheless, We wish it to be declared to them that it was not Our intention to exempt them altogether from this office of paternal charity, of visiting personally the wretched sick who desire to obtain plenary absolution at the final moment, but to aid their piety opportunely, lest, while they themselves are detained by other pastoral cares, they should have to grieve that the faithful committed to them departed this life deprived of so great a spiritual benefit. But those who rejoice to exercise a pious work of this kind personally [which indeed We trust that all will do whenever they are not legitimately impeded] should remember that it is to be afforded not only to the more noble and powerful of this world, but also to the poor and to persons of lowly condition. Concerning this matter, the homily of Our predecessor Saint Gregory the Great, homily 28 on the Gospels, upon chapter IV of John, There was a certain ruler whose son was sick at Capernaum, can profitably be read; in it he observes the wonderful and heavenly manner of acting of Our most beloved Redeemer Jesus Christ, who, when invited to visit the ruler's sick son, refused to go, yet declares that He will go to the servant of the Centurion even though He was not invited. What is this, that the ruler asks Him to come to his son, and yet He refuses to come; but He is not invited to the servant of the Centurion, and nevertheless promises to go bodily? He does not deign to be present bodily with the ruler's son; He does not disdain to hasten to the servant of the Centurion.

"... And since the Roman Ritual enjoins priests who piously assist the faithful laboring in their final agony, or administer to them the Sacraments of the Church, that if the sick person can obtain a plenary indulgence granted by legitimate authority, they should recall it to his mind and propose what he must do to obtain it; but of those who have been reduced to such a state, some retain, with full cognition, the complete use of speech, while others have lost the faculty of speaking, although they previously gave indications of sincere contrition and, while still using reason, do not cease repeatedly to give them: therefore, so that all the aforesaid may more certainly be able to obtain the fruit of the indulgence, We command the aforesaid priests to strive by every means to arouse the dying faithful to elicit new acts of sorrow for sins committed and to conceive affections of most fervent charity toward God, but especially to accept death itself with an equable and willing mind from the hand of the Lord. For this is the principal work We impose and enjoin upon persons placed at such a moment, whereby they may prepare and dispose themselves to obtain the fruit of the plenary indulgence." Benedict XIV, Pia Mater. Cf. A. S. S., vol. 11, p. 405 ff.

"At least the mental invocation of the Most Holy Name of Jesus is a condition sine qua non for all the Christian faithful who, placed at the point of death, wish to obtain a plenary indulgence by virtue of this blessing." Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, 22 September 1892; A. S. S., vol. 25, p. 316.

"Lest the Christian faithful living in mission territories in any part of the world, and placed in the final danger of life, should lack those spiritual aids which the Catholic Church, as a pious Mother, is accustomed mercifully to impart to her children departing from this world, Our Most Holy Lord Clement XIV, Pope by Divine Providence, because of the extraordinary charity with which he embraces them paternally, most lovingly grants to each and every Most Reverend Patriarch, Archbishop, Bishop, Vicar Apostolic, and also to the Most Reverend Prefects or Superiors of missions, whether of the secular or regular clergy, now existing or at any time to exist in mission territories, as above, the faculty of imparting the blessing with a plenary indulgence to the aforesaid faithful reduced to the final agony, with this extension also, that they can and may communicate a faculty of this kind to priests and respectively to missionaries subject to their jurisdiction, but only for places in their dioceses or for the districts of the missions, provided that in imparting this blessing the formula prescribed by Benedict XIV, of sacred memory, in the Constitution given on 9 April 1747 which begins Pia Mater, to be recorded below, is observed.

"But since it can easily happen that some of the aforesaid Christian faithful depart this life without having been fortified by the Sacraments of the Church and without the assistance of any priest, therefore His Holiness, from the abundant font of Apostolic benignity, grants a plenary indulgence also to them if, being contrite, they shall have invoked the name of Jesus at least in their heart, shall have accepted death from the hand of the Lord with that Christian submission of mind and humility of spirit which is fitting, and shall have commended their soul into the hands of their Creator. In order that this last part of the Decree may become known to all the Christian faithful, let the aforementioned prelates and superiors take care and strive to publish it repeatedly in their dioceses and missions, and especially at the time of sacred visitation." Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 5 April 1772.

"According to the indult granted by the Holy See, all missionaries have by communication the faculty of bestowing a plenary indulgence upon those placed at the point of death. But since they rarely find the faithful placed precisely at the point of death, it comes about that some bestow the said indulgence when there is merely danger of death, although it does not appear to threaten very nearly; but others, according to the rigor of the words, do not apply it except at the time when the agony appears near; and then, when they do not observe so proximate a danger of death, whether by means of medals to which indulgences of this kind are annexed by authority of the Holy See, which they give to the faithful, or by means of the invocation of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, as has been granted by several Supreme Pontiffs, they admonish the faithful to fulfill the conditions by which they may merit to obtain so great a benefit. If the Sacred Congregation should judge it proper to determine to which position adherence should rather be given, all of us, however many we are, will stand ready for the judgment of the Holy See. - Response. As to that which is disputed among the missionaries concerning the time for imparting a plenary indulgence to those placed at the point of death, the Sacred Congregation judged that circumstance of time sufficient for its lawful conferral which suffices for conferring Extreme Unction itself, namely, when the sick person is seen by force of the illness to be tending toward death. Nor is a time nearer to the agony to be awaited, when the sick person, scarcely in possession of himself, is entirely incapable of producing those movements of soul which the Roman Ritual demands, so that the fruit of so great a benefit, as of Extreme Unction, may be perceived more abundantly. Therefore, it will be the duty of missionaries, after sacramental anointing has been administered to the sick person, to arouse him to conceive in his mind those things which are read in the same book of the Ritual, and immediately afterward to fortify him with so signal a benefit of plenary remission; and they should perform this especially when they foresee that they will not return." Holy Office, January 1780.

"Can the Apostolic blessing be imparted several times when a new danger of death recurs? - Response. Negative while the illness, even if prolonged, continues; but affirmative if the sick person has recovered and then for any cause returns into a new danger of death." Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, 24 September 1838.

"1. Whether, by virtue of the preceding resolution [case from Valencia, 5 February 1841, by which a sick person cannot, in the same point of death, gain a plenary indulgence to be imparted by several priests having the faculty], it is forbidden that this plenary indulgence at the point of death, which is commonly called the Papal Blessing, be imparted several times by the same or by several priests having this faculty to a sick person remaining in the same danger of death? 2. Whether, by virtue of the same resolution, it is likewise forbidden that a plenary indulgence at the point of death be imparted several times to a sick person placed in the same circumstances as above by several priests having this faculty from different titles, by reason of enrollment in the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, of the Holy Scapular of Mount Carmel, of the Most Holy Trinity, etc.? - Response. Affirmative to both, the resolution in the case from Valencia dated 5 February 1841 remaining in force." Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, 12 March 1852; 12 June 1884; M. E., vol. 12, p. 532 ff.

"Since on the one hand it is expressly determined that an Indulgence at the point of death cannot be applied for the departed, but on the other hand those who have made the heroic act for the departed can offer for them all Indulgences, even those which otherwise are not applicable for the departed, it is therefore asked: a) Whether those who have made the aforesaid heroic act can, and indeed, if they do not wish to revoke that act, even must offer for the departed the Indulgence gained at the point of death? And if affirmative: b) Whether, the heroic act having been made, a plenary Indulgence at the point of death, although gained under various titles and by repeating the respective works, is nevertheless gained for the departed only once and not several times? - Response. To the first part: No response is to be given. To the second part, the doubt having been reformulated as follows: Whether those who have made the aforesaid heroic act and can gain several Plenary Indulgences at the point of death under various titles may gain at least one Plenary Indulgence for the departed, but reserve the others for themselves? - Response. As in the preceding response to the first part, and according to the mind; the mind, however, is that the plenary Indulgence granted for the point of death is gained only once, that is, at the true point of death, even if the dying person has a right to it under various titles." Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, 23 January 1901.

"1. Whether a plenary indulgence at the point of death, which is customarily granted without another declaration added, is to be understood at the true point of death, at the presumed point, or finally at both? 2. Whether a plenary indulgence at the point of death is to be granted to all who petition? 3. Whether those who are contrite but neither have confessed nor been refreshed by Holy Communion obtain the plenary indulgence which the Roman Pontiffs commonly grant to petitioners for the point of death? - Response. To 1. It is to be understood only at the true point of death. - To 2. It is to be granted to all who petition. - To 3. Persons of this kind who are contrite gain the indulgence if the Pontiff in his grant does not require confession or something else similar." Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, 23 April 1675.

1088. • QUESTION 1. Does the recitation of the confession, that is, the Confiteor, made in the Sacrament of Penance suffice for the prescribed recitation of it when the blessing with an Indulgence at the point of death is to be imparted?

Reply. Negatively, according to the practice and Rubrics, unless necessity urges.

QUESTION 2. Is it necessary to recite the Confiteor three times when sacred Viaticum and Extreme Unction are administered and the Indulgence at the point of death is imparted?

Reply. Affirmatively, according to the practice and Rubrics.

QUESTION 3. Can a sick person gain the plenary Indulgence at the point of death several times from several Priests having the faculty of imparting it?

Reply. Negatively, in the same point of death.

QUESTION 4. Does a Priest validly confer the plenary Indulgence at the point of death if, because a book is lacking, he omits the formula prescribed by the Supreme Pontiff?

Reply. Negatively, because the formula is not merely directive but preceptive. 5 February 1841.

563. a) The indulgence or blessing at the moment of death.

Nature. Many confraternities grant their members a plenary indulgence at the moment of death. Similarly, many others can gain a plenary indulgence at the moment of death, for example, those who keep certain blessed Rosaries, crosses, or medals. We are not speaking here of those indulgences, but of the papal blessing at the moment of death, which the Roman Pontiff grants with a plenary indulgence.

1. According to the discipline in force, any priest who assists the sick can impart this blessing.¹⁰²

2. It cannot be given to hardened excommunicates and public sinners; it can and must, however, be given to all those who are capable of receiving sacramental absolution.¹⁰³

3. The conditions required that someone validly receive it are: a) The state of grace; and therefore at least an act of contrition must be elicited by the sinner; commonly, however, this blessing is imparted after confession and Viaticum. b) The dying person must at least mentally invoke the Most Holy Name of Jesus¹⁰⁴ and accept death from the hand of God with an equable and willing mind;¹⁰⁵ therefore the priest should prudently admonish the dying person concerning this twofold act. c) The formula prescribed by Benedict XIV must be employed under pain of nullity. Hence even those priests, for example, regulars, who follow a particular rite must employ the formula prescribed in the Roman Ritual; regulars can, however, add the name of their own founder in the Confiteor.¹⁰⁶ If the papal blessing is given after Viaticum and Extreme Unction, the Confiteor must be repeated, so that then the Confiteor is to be recited three times.¹⁰⁷ "But if the sick person is so near death that time does not permit either the making of a general confession or the recitation of the preceding prayers, let the priest immediately impart the blessing to him," beginning with the words: "Our Lord," and so forth.¹⁰⁸

4. The indulgence annexed to the papal blessing is acquired at the moment when death actually occurs, and consequently during the same illness this blessing cannot be given more than once, even if Viaticum and Extreme Unction are given several times. But if the sick person recovers and afterward, for any cause whatever, falls into a new danger of death, it is indeed lawful to repeat the papal blessing;¹⁰⁹ but this is not necessary, because the plenary indulgence is acquired, not at the time when the blessing is imparted, but at the time when death actually follows, as has been said.

¹⁰² Code of Canon Law, c. 468, § 2.

¹⁰³ Cf. Roman Ritual. This blessing can also be given to boys capable of malice, although they have not yet been admitted to First Communion.

¹⁰⁴ This is a condition sine qua non; cf. Decreta authentica Indulgentiarum, n. 237 ad 7.

¹⁰⁵ Thus the Bull Pia mater.

¹⁰⁶ Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, May 7, 1882.

¹⁰⁷ Decreta authentica Indulgentiarum, n. 286 ad 6.

¹⁰⁸ Cf. Beringer-Steinen, loc. cit. I, n. 1028.

¹⁰⁹ Thus expressly the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences (Decreta authentica Indulgentiarum, nn. 263 and 300).

708. The apostolic blessing, or general absolution, as it is customarily called, must also be granted to the dying to whom the sacraments are ministered, and can be granted by any priest, according to can. 468, § 2: "to the priest who assists the sick there is the faculty of granting them the Apostolic Blessing with plenary indulgence at the article of death according to the form handed down by approved liturgical books, which blessing he is not to omit imparting."

Therefore under the name of general absolution comes the plenary indulgence which the Supreme Pontiff, by himself or through delegates, imparts to the dying under the form of a blessing: under this respect it is wholly distinguished from the plenary indulgence which, without any blessing, can be gained at the article of death either by those who have with them a blessed or pious object (for example, a cross or tablet), to be carried with them or in the room until death, to which an apostolic indulgence is annexed; or by members of a confraternity to which such a privilege has been conceded.

General absolution can be granted to all adults, or those capable of malice, constituted in grave danger, even from a cause other than disease, who have sought it or probably would have sought it, or have given signs of contrition; - but the indulgence remains suspended and does not obtain its effect except in the true and physical article of death. And therefore it neither should nor can be repeated or given under several titles in the same infirmity however long-lasting, since this is wholly useless, even if afterward the dying person has fallen into a new mortal sin; - but it is only to be repeated if the sick person has recovered and afterward has fallen into a new danger (S. C. Indg., Sept. 24, 1838; Mar. 12, 1855; Feb. 12, 1842).

The conditions required in the sick person for gaining it, from the bull of Benedict XIV, Pia mater, Apr. 5, 1747, are:

a) That he not be excommunicated or manifestly impenitent; but if he is doubtfully disposed, the apostolic blessing should be granted whenever sacramental absolution or Extreme Unction is given, even only under condition.

b) That he have received the sacrament of Penance and the Eucharist, if he can; but if he cannot, the state of grace suffices while he gives forth his last breath.

c) That he offer himself as prepared for accepting whatever shall have pleased God, and for patiently undergoing death itself in satisfaction for the punishments which he himself has deserved by sinning.

d) That he devoutly invoke the Most Holy name of Jesus by mouth if he can, otherwise in heart; and that he elicit an act of sorrow and charity.

The aforesaid indulgence cannot be applied to the dead.