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Benedictines sue in federal court for right to sell caskets they make |
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By Peter Finney Jr. - Catholic News Service
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Monday, 16 August 2010 |
Standing behind a simple, cypress casket handcrafted by the monks of St. Joseph Abbey, Benedictine Abbot Justin Brown asked a federal court in New Orleans Aug. 12 to bury a Louisiana law allowing only licensed funeral homes to sell caskets to the public.
A casket is carried down the steps of the federal courthouse in New Orleans Aug. 12 after a press conference to announce a lawsuit filed by monks to challenge a Louisiana law that allows only funeral home operators to sell caskets to the public. Pictured are Benedictine Father Charles Benoit, top left, and Benedictine Abbot Justin Brown, top right, Deacon Mark Coudrain, bottom left, and attorney Evans Schmidt. CNS photo/Frank J Methe, Clarion Herald
At stake, Abbot Brown said, is the monks' ability to engage in free enterprise through the sale of the caskets, which range in price from $1,500 to $2,000, but which are considerably less expensive than many of the caskets sold to bereaved families by funeral home operators.
The simplicity of the caskets reflects the sacred Christian theology
that at the end of life, the body is returned to the earth but the soul
lives on, Abbot Brown said.
The Benedictines of St. Joseph Abbey in St. Benedict, La., have made the
caskets for decades to bury their brother monks, but public interest in
the caskets began in the early 1990s and has grown over the years.
In 2007 the Benedictines launched St. Joseph Woodworks, headed by Deacon
Mark Coudrain, a master woodworker, to begin making caskets to sell to
the public.
"We are men not only of prayer, but we also are men who have been known
to be entrepreneurs, making an honest living by the labor of our own
hands," Abbot Brown said. "We are here today because we feel that our
right to economic freedom is being denied us.
"All we want to do is to be able to construct, craft and build simple
wooden coffins to sell to our friends, associates and the general
public," he continued. "We are not a wealthy monastery, and we were
hoping that the income we could generate from the sale of these coffins
would help us meet the educational and the health care needs of our
monks.
"We would like to see the day when we can freely operate St. Joseph
Woodworks without any unreasonable government restrictions," he said.
The monks are being represented in their federal court fight by the
Arlington, Va.-based Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public interest
law firm. At a news conference on the steps of the U.S. District Court
for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the institute passed out media
kits with the catch phrase "Free the Monks and Free Enterprise."
"What you see in front of you is a casket that the monks have made,"
said Jeff Rowes, a senior attorney with the institute. "A casket is just
a box. It has four sides, a top and some upholstery. But for the sin of
selling this casket to the public, the state of Louisiana can put you
in jail for up to 180 days."
Rowes said the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors,
which represents licensed funeral homes in the state, also has issued
subpoenas to Abbot Brown and Deacon Coudrain "and are now threatening
them with fines of up to $2,500 for every casket they sell."
Rowes said there was "no legitimate rationale" for the Louisiana law
restricting the sale of caskets to licensed funeral home operators.
"You don't even need a casket to be buried in Louisiana or any other
state," Rowes said. "You can be buried directly in the ground. You can
be buried in a bed sheet. This is just a box. The only reason the law
exists, and the only reason they're enforcing it, is to protect the
profits of a private industry group."
A few months after a story about the new casket-making venture was
published in 2007 by the Clarion Herald, the official newspaper of the
Archdiocese of New Orleans, the state board issued a "cease and desist"
order to the abbey's woodworking team.
Over the last two years, the abbey has attempted to get the state law
changed, but bills that would have accomplished that never made it out
of committee in either the House of Representatives or the Senate.
Attempts at a compromise with the funeral home directors failed, Deacon Coudrain said.
"One offer we got was that they would buy it from us for half of what we
were selling it for, then they would add $1,000 to it and sell it to
the public," Deacon Coudrain said.
The 6th and 9th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal have struck down laws
restricting casket sales, similar to Louisiana's, while the 10th Circuit
has upheld an Oklahoma law that protected funeral homes.
The monks are hoping for a quick hearing and a stay of a proceeding against the abbey by the Louisiana funeral directors' board.
Abbot Brown said at least three other monasteries in the U.S. -- St.
Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, Ind.; New Melleray Abbey in Peosta,
Iowa; and Mount Michael Abbey in Elkhorn, Neb. -- have casket-making
operations and sell their coffins to the public.
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