Can the government restrict the monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Saint Benedict, La., from building boxes?
Yes, says the state, if those boxes are for the deceased.
In 2007, the monks at St. Joseph’s Abbey started St. Joseph Woodworks for the purpose of building simple wooden caskets as a means of supporting themselves. Monks in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota have been in the casket-making business for years.
Before they were able to sell even a single casket, the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors told them that their sale of caskets violated state law, which says that you cannot sell “funeral merchandise” unless you’re a licensed funeral director. Were the monks to sell their caskets, they would risk both fines and imprisonment.
In order to sell caskets legally, the monks would have to apprentice at a licensed funeral home for a year, take a funeral industry test, and convert their monastery into a “funeral establishment,” installing equipment for embalming.
“We are not a wealthy monastery, and we want to sell our plain wooden caskets to pay for food, health care, and the education of our monks, said Abbot Justin Brown.
This morning, the Arlington, Va.-based Institute for Justice is holding a press conference on the front steps of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on behalf of the monks. They are announcing a federal lawsuit to fight against the state funeral board’s attempt to shut down their casket-making business.
“A casket is just a box and you do not even need one for burial,” said Institute for Justice senior attorney Scott Bullock. “There is no legitimate health or safety reason to license casket sellers.”
The Institute for Justice says that the only reason the state of Louisiana is preventing the Abbey from selling its caskets is to protect the profits of the state’s funeral directors.
“Economic liberty is a constitutional right that matters to everyone, even monks,” said Jeff Rowes, senior attorney with the Institute for Justice.
“The monks’ story is just one example of a national problem in which industry cartels use government power to protect themselves from competition,” said Chip Mellor, president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice. “Protecting economic liberty and ending government-enforced cartels requires judicial engagement – a willingness by the courts to confront what is often really going on when the government enacts licensing laws supposedly to protect the public.”
There’s a great video overview of the case go here. To learn more, visit the Institute for Justice’s website.
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now that this is in the open we now need legislation to limit the fees funeral homes charge families at the worst times.
they rip people off and must be stopped.
also the funeral homes will lose this battle with the monks and more people will buy the inexpensive caskets.
new legislation should also hurt these thieves.
Monks win. Subsidiarity loses.
Their appeal for justice should have been local.
This is why Funeral Advocates is loved and appreciated by our clients. We will not be bullied by the funeral industry and always represent consumers in negotiating funeral products and services for the public. Families need protecting more than funeral homes. Brian O
www.funeraladvocates.com
why couldn’t they maybe sell the “general use” boxes to someone who is licensed, say, out of state, who then does what ever they want with them, be it bookcases, wine racks, or buriel?
I wonder if “Mike” above is Michael Rasch, general counsel for the LA funeral board. His arguments sound like the same old tired positions he and Dawn Scardino, Exec. Dir. for the Board have aired before legislative committees in the past in speaking against casket retail sales by non-funeral directors. “The handles will fall off, the bottom will drop out, the retailer’s business might fail.” If a merchant sells shoddy goods, his business might indeed fail. I’ll remind you that licensed funeral homes in LA have been selling particle board, cloth-covered caskets for decades. What exactly is a fledgling third-party casket retailer going to offer the public that is more shoddy than that?
they should sell these: http://www.lastthings.net/bookcase.html
“There are many companies also selling urns for cremated remains…Are they subject to the same laws?”
Yes: From Louisiana bill HB 1609 - Cemetery and Funeral Services Act of 2000:
(1)(3) ‘Burial merchandise,’ ‘funeral merchandise,’ or
4-10 ‘merchandise’ means any merchandise normally offered or
4-11 sold by a cemetery company or preneed dealer personal
4-12 property offered or sold by any person for use in
4-13 connection with the final disposition, memorialization,
4-14 interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains.
4-15 This includes, but is not limited to, subterranean
4-16 crypts, mausoleums, markers and monuments, whether
4-17 bronze or otherwise, bronze plaques and vases, mausoleum
4-18 spaces to be constructed, cemetery spaces to be
4-19 developed, and vaults, and also includes foundations or
4-20 footings of any type.
And Oregon law defines “funeral merchandise” even more broadly:
“Funeral merchandise” means personal property offered for sale or sold for use in connection with funeral services. “Funeral merchandise” includes, but is not limited to, acknowledgment cards, alternative containers, caskets, clothing, cremation containers, cremation interment containers, flowers, memory folders, monuments, outer burial containers, prayer cards, register books and urns.
There is the tale of the grieving widow who went to a funeral home to discuss arrangements for her husband’s burial. She was offered various coffins, from a simple pine box to more costly one of oak. “Why the difference?” she asked. She was told “the oak is healthier”.
I spend a few days at Abbey St. Joseph most every spring; those are some great guys and they are a blessing to the communities around them. The State should be grateful to the Benedictines, and not persecute them.
Mike said:
“Even if the monks make jelly/jam, they must obey rules and laws intended to keep the purchaser healthy.”
Yes, I am sure that the state of Louisiana must protect the health and safety of the dead.
“state law, which says that you cannot sell “funeral merchandise” unless you’re a licensed funeral director.”
I would bet that virtually none of the Louisiana funeral directors manufacture the the caskets that they sell. They probably purchase them from several different suppliers, probably in states other than Louisiana. I have noticed semis on freeways with casket company names on them. Are those casket companies also funeral homes with embalming equipment? Or are they violating the laws of another state?
There are many companies also selling urns for cremated remains, including at least one monastic order that I’m aware of. Are they subject to the same laws?
It is time to remember the great quotes of a great man in a once upon a time a great nation: George Washington: first president of the USA.
“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible”
“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter”
“The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slave”.
PS. It is the oath of governance to lead a nation to prosperity and well being rather than to chaos and despair. No man should take our God given freedom!
That is why I moved from Louisiana to live in Florida. If you are going to be a corrupt politician, and take kickbacks from the funeral industry to protect your turf, at least be discrete about it, or perhaps ashamed. I would rather live in a state where corruption is still believed as something to be ashamed of.
We should not be too critical of the proufoundly Catholic state of Louisiana. The law restricting sale of caskets to trained professionals is not new and is intended to protect the public from dangerous or sub-standard merchandise and fly-by-night salespersons. Further, the monks were warned before they started into the casket business that they would have to obtain licensing. Even if the monks make jelly/jam, they must obey rules and laws intended to keep the purchaser healthy. I sympathize with the monks but understand the position of the state of Louisiana.
The Holy Roman Catholic Church in America could be the leading proselytizer in this and other similar practices of questionable actions taken by Catholic organizations. But where was the Church when Sister Carol Keehan and her Catholic Health Association loudly voiced strong support of the abortion funding in ObamaCare? Where was the Church leadership when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius nee Kathleen Gilligan who was graduated from Trinity Washington University (Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur) in Washington, D.C. agreed enthusiastically with the United Nations that all human rights are granted by the state, not by the Creator; and why has our leadership not admonished House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi in her determined support of partial birth abortions? There has been no action taken against the Catholic Campaign for Human Development which funded ACORN projects with grants totaling more than $7.3 million over a period of 10 years. Granted, the Catholic Church has neither the power nor the right to act against the federal government, but she does have the power and she does have the right to punish her own flock. There are various levels of admonishment all the way up to and including excommunication, but little has been done. It has been suggested that the leaders of our beloved Roman Catholic Church here in the United States have chosen tax exemption over proselytizing. I often wonder if the Gates of Hell are about to prevail. But no ... unless laymen allow it by our silence at the polls. Please remember the Church Militant. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
I like Douglas’ idea - selling the caskets as something else entirely. I recall reading an article about the popularity of home burials, which referenced wooden caskets actually being used by customers as bookcases until they’re needed for their other duty.
St. Joseph Woodworks should simply sell their “bookcases” and let people use them however they want.
Golly gee, do you think the Trappist monks would have the same problem with their jams and jellies?
What about the poor nuns (don’t know the order…sorry) who make candies and communion hosts that is sold through mail order?
What about the nuns of St Paul?
Where will it end? If you damn one, you damn them all.
The funeral homes that are sqwacking can easily sublet or contract the monks’ services to provide the caskets.
what the heck was that rant all about? weren’t we talking about boxes?
The Holy Roman Catholic Church in America could be the leading proselytizer in this and other similar practices of questionable actions taken by Catholic organizations. But where was the Church when Sister Carol Keehan and her Catholic Health Association loudly voiced strong support for the abortion funding in ObamaCare? Where was the Church leadership when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius nee Kathleen Gilligan who was graduated from Trinity Washington University (Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur) in Washington, D.C. agreed enthusiastically with the United Nations that all human rights are granted by the state, not by the Creator; and why has our leadership not admonished House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi in her determined support of partial birth abortions? There has been no action taken against the Catholic Campaign for Human Development which funded ACORN projects with grants totaling more than $7.3 million over a period of 10 years. Granted, the Catholic Church has neither the power nor the right to act against the federal government, but she does have the power and she does have the right to punish her own flock. There are various levels of admonishment all the way up to and including excommunication, but little has been done. It has been suggested that the leaders of our beloved Roman Catholic Church here in the United States have chosen tax exemption over proselytizing. I often wonder if the Gates of Hell are about to prevail. But no ... unless laymen allow it by our silence at the polls. Please remember the Church Militant. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
I have made arrangements for my funeral: cremation, mass (the urn and photograph suitably set up at the front of the church), burial in a Catholic cemetery, followed by a friends-and-family celebration. By dealing directly with the crematorium, the total expense will be about one-half the standard undertaker’s cremation cost, and about one-tenth the open-coffin service.
It’s time our society realized that displaying a body in a mahogany coffin with all the flowers and bells and whistles, borders on the barbaric. I did not see my parents’ bodies. I preferred to remember them as they were when alive.
A number of years ago, an organization in the State of Oregon fashioned and sold beautiful wooden boxes which were shaped like caskets. A buyer had the options of buying accessories to insert in these boxes, so that they could be used as a bookshself, or for storing wine ... until some later event in life. BTW, I would hope the ACLU might find cause to join in defense of the monks.
Peter, Bobby Jindal is Catholic. Wonder what his take on the question really is!
This is truly sad—refelctive of a state run by a Hindoo governor
I highly recommend a book by an organic farmer in Virginia titled.
“Everything I Want to do is Illegal” by Joel Salatin. Here’s a link to an article he wrote by the same title
http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Salatin_Sept03.pdf
This smacks of the Freemasons in the government and funeral industry doing the “secret handshake” - a wink and a nod to squeeze out competition and protect their brother Masons. What it really is is cowardice to compete in a free market.
This is a good example of how it affects local businesses, but also know that this goes on at the highest levels of the corporate world.
This is absolutely ridiculous! The only reason the funeral industry wants to sell the caskets is so they can “rip us off.”
I am going to buy a casket made by monks! Hopefully will not need to use it in the near future…..
Our country would be so darn better off if all those darn rules and regulations were burned and the ashes scattered to the wind.
Kida can’t have lemonade stands, shade tree mechanics can’t work out of their homes, there are so many zoning ordinances and laws we all must break at least a dozen a day without knowing it!
We have all these rules because the people that make them are called ‘law makers’ and they have to constantly make laws to justify their jobs!
If the frivolous laws were eliminted we could get on with the business of living. Base all the law on the 10 commandments and we would all live a more peaceful life free of political claptrap and talking heads.
Wooden caskets of cheaper value is a blessong for the poor.Isit correct and just to spend lavishly on such items when poor people can be helped with that money?
Sign me up for two of those ‘simply constructed wooden boxes’!! I think they’ll store my kids stuff just fine until it needs to hold me and my dh. :-)
When my mother passed away in Louisiana last year, we purchased a beautiful wooden casket produced by monks in Indiana. It was considerably cheaper that one of similar quality sold by the funeral home.
For the State of Louisiana to go after the monks at St. Joseph’s is an act of official oppression. With all the problems remaining from Katrina and the recent gulf oil spill, surely the state has more important issues to pursue.
You go for it Institute for Justice.
It is not only the state that is to blame here. It is the state in cahoots with the funeral industry, which has taken total control over how our beloved dead are put to rest. Follow the money.
Pitiful exercise of power by State thugs. Where are the Politicians who can get rid of this nonsense ??? God bless us all.-Raymond
(oops, should have written that as “their own business”
sorry
Perhaps the monks could sell these as “simple and beautifully constructed wooden storage boxes.” What the consumer decides to store in them is there own business and if it happens to be a corpse in the ground… well so be it.
This is old news for us in Louisiana, but thanks for spreading the word. It’s appalling the lengths to which the state will go to butt into things that’s none of their business. In the most corrupt state in the union, though, not a terrible surprise…
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