CHURCHES
SPLIT ON MORTUARY DEALS
Published: Sunday, March 21, 1999
Section: LOCAL
Page: 14A
By
ROBIN FIELDS Staff Writer
A
tacit cooperation has always existed between religious groups
and the funeral industry: Mortuary ads are commonplace in
church and temple newsletters; it's not unusual to find a
priest's business card alongside a funeral director's.
But
in recent years, the relationship has become formal, even
contractual: Funeral chains have struck deals with religious
organizations in Los Angeles and Montreal, investing millions
to become their preferred providers.
The
best-known such arrangement in Florida was an ill-fated deal
between the Nashville-based National Baptist Convention USA,
the nation's largest association of black churches, and the
Loewen Group of Burnaby, British Columbia.
Others
soon may follow.
"It's
not a front-burner issue yet, but it probably ought to be,"
said Mike McCarron, spokesman for the Florida Catholic Conference,
the umbrella group that represents the state's Catholics.
Proponents
say church-chain ventures provide congregations with desperately
needed cash. Even active churchgoers increasingly are turning
to secular funeral homes and cemeteries. Between 1965 and
1985, the portion of Catholic burials handled by archdiocesan
cemeteries sank to 35 percent -- down from about 85 percent
-- costing archdioceses millions.
"People
want one-stop shopping, a mortuary and cemetery in one,"
said the Rev. Gregory Coiro, the Los Angeles archdiocese's
media relations director. "The idea is to make Catholic
cemeteries more attractive to parishioners."
But
critics say the new deals are no way to make up the shortfall.
Churches
are helping to gouge their own parishioners by promoting companies
that typically offer funeral services at higher prices than
independent competitors, they say.
"It's
sinful," said the Rev. Henry Wasliewski, a Phoenix priest
and consumer activist. "When an ad says `Patronize your
Catholic mortuaries,' people are going to feel like they're
helping the diocese by choosing those funeral homes, when
most of the profit is going to the chain."
Still,
the ties between chains and churches continue to grow.
After
the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed in 1997 to let Stewart
Enterprises Inc. put mortuaries on six Catholic cemeteries,
rival funeral giant Services Corporation International formed
a subsidiary, Christian Funeral Services Inc., "to assist
any North American Catholic Diocese" in managing its
funeral business.
So
far, the SCI offshoot has signed on the Montreal archdiocese.
"It
can be very lucrative," said Lance Yost, a former Baptist
minister who now runs Eulogy International, a Richmond, Va.,
consulting company that advises consumers on reducing funeral
costs. "If you can work through the conventions or the
dioceses, you have a direct line to the membership."
Some
Catholic groups are finding ways to make money by helping
parishioners plan funerals without compromising the church's
role.
The
Pittsburgh diocese offers its own funeral packages, both to
generate income and to help control funeral costs for parishioners.
The Archdiocese of Denver started building church-operated
mortuaries in the early '80s.
About
five years ago, the Archdiocese of Miami considered doing
the same but rejected the idea.
PUBLISHED MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1999
Because of a reporter's error, the name of a funeral home
chain appeared incorrectly several times in a package of stories
beginning on Page 1A in Sunday's editions. The correct name
of the company is Service Corp. International. We regret the
error.
Copyright
1999, SUN-SENTINEL Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
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