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That's the way it used to be back when Europe was Catholic, before the French Revolution.  There was a guild system in place for most trades, and when a guild member died, the others pitched in (as did parishioners).

It occurs to me now that one of the down sides of the emergence/prevalence of insurances is that it removed a strong expression of charity between Catholics (who now generally look to their government, bankers, and insurance providers for help rather than each other).

Anyway, I don’t want to derail this thread, but Fr. Fahey’s book on guilds is interesting.

Just wanted to reiterate CR’s point about not being shy to reach out on the forum, as it gives us all an opportunity to do a charitable and Catholic deed, which “covers a multitude of sins.” 

Thanks, that's what I was thinking of (but was just too lazy to cross-refer it across all four Gospels).

Yeah, maybe Lazarus wasn't a good example.  Stinketh might imply putrefaction.  But then it again it might not ... could just be external stink.  Perhaps that's to underscore how the greatness of this miracle, since once that has begun, the man was clearly dead, that this was no mere magician's trick.  We could speculate, then, that Lazarus' soul was in Limbo and then brought back by Our Lord.  I'm guessing, though, that the Lord brought him back with his corruption undone also, since I wouldn't want to be raised back to life partially decomposed.

Regardless, the point is that it's somewhat disputed and not clear from Revelation when the soul actually leaves the body at death, so the rule of thumb is that it's permitted to perform Last Rites conditionally until rigor mortis (i.e. putrefaction).  I think rigor mortis was set up as a more obvious criterion that can be easily tested, since without lab tests it's hard to know when putrefaction has begin.