Funeral giants, church make two new
deals
By LESLIE WIRPSA
NCR Staff Los Angeles
Two new alliances between corporate funeral industry giants and
Catholic institutions were announced last month, raising anew questions about
the influence of private, for-profit entities over church life.
The Tucson diocese announced the signing of a
long-term contract March 16 for management of the churchs
local cemeteries by the Loewen Group, the second largest funeral chain in North
America.
In a separate development, Christian Funeral Services, a
subsidiary of the largest U.S. death care conglomerate, Service Corporation
International, gave a major gift to the Pontifical North American
College in Rome for the construction of a bishops suite in honor of the
late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago and a new chapel, to be called the
Maria Immaculata Chapel, in honor of Bernardins successor, Cardinal
Francis George.
Both announcements come amid a campaign by death care giants to
capture more of the Catholic market. On Jan. 30, NCR reported that Stewart
Enterprises had leased land on cemeteries owned by the Los Angeles archdiocese,
with plans to build and operate upscale mortuaries at six of the 11 cemeteries
in the archdiocese.
The Stewart deal in Los Angeles prompted SCI -- Service
Corporation International -- the largest chain in the United States -- to form
a subsidiary, Christian Funeral Services, dedicated specifically to promoting
business in the Catholic world, according to John Morrow, executive vice
president of SCI and president of Christian Funeral Services.
According to a brief Christian Funeral Services news release, the
new residence and chapel in Rome will allow the college to offer more
suitable accommodations for their episcopal guests.
NCR made repeated attempts to contact a spokesperson , but
no one from Christian Funeral Services was available to answer questions about
the gifts.
A news release from the Tucson diocese said the decision to turn
over the day-to-day operation of the local cemeteries to Loewen will allow the
church to regain control of its cemeteries, which were sold to the Los Angeles
archdiocese in 1989. That year, a financial crisis, resulting in part from
investments in a family-centered UHF television venture, brought diocesan debt
to a whopping $33 million.
Both announcements rekindle questions about just how far the
church can go in working with death care conglomerates motivated by profits and
still provide for the spiritual and pastoral needs of faith communities.
Joseph B. Sankovich, former director of cemeteries for the Seattle
archdiocese, heads a Tucson-based consulting service that focuses almost
exclusively on Catholic cemeteries and works with 20 dioceses in the United
States and Canada. He said the Tucson diocesan deal and the broader issues it
represents are on the minds of the vicars general, the moderators of the
curia, the diocesan cemetery directors throughout the country. From
what I can tell, other dioceses are asking the question of what this means in
terms of ministry, when for-profits take over their administration.
A call to the bishops
Sankovich said the Tucson news is a call to the
bishops. That kind of movement, he said, should alert them, one and
all, that they are going to be pressured incredibly hard to see cemeteries as
nothing other than moneymaking or a way to get out from under the burdens of
administration. He said the bishops must understand that what
happens in one diocese has a major impact in other dioceses throughout the
United States and Canada.
Cemetery administration, he said, should not be seen as misery but
as ministry. He said the bishops should take leadership regarding the
cemeteries, establishing an office targeted directly toward death and
funeral issues that puts the churchs cemeteries ... at the highest level
of priorities.
In contrast to the mortuary construction deal struck last year
between Stewart Enterprises and the Los Angeles archdiocese (NCR, Jan.
30) under which Stewart will build and run mortuaries on leased Catholic
cemetery land, Tucson has contracted with Loewen only to manage cemetery
operations.
Loewen officials said they intend to retain all 34 diocesan
employees and 21 sales counselors who previously worked in Catholic cemeteries
in Tucson under Los Angeles archdiocesan control. But, industry critics say,
even if employees are retained, such alignments bring into question the
churchs capacity to care spiritually and pastorally for bereaved
parishioners.
Which snake do you want to kiss? quipped Lisa Carlson,
executive director of the Funeral and Memorial Society of America and author of
the popular guidebook Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love. When
it comes to corporations, she said, stockholders are the clients, not the
neighborhood grieving families. Nonprofit funeral societies and other
industry watchers have documented cases where funeral prices have risen when
corporate chains move into areas previously dominated by independent
mortuaries.
Fred Allison, of the press office of the Tucson diocese,
emphasized that a board will oversee the operations of the cemeteries and
work with Loewen to see that any lowering or raising of prices is
reasonable in terms of similar services provided in the community.
He said the board, which will include clergy, religious women and
representatives from the various ethnic and cultural communities served by the
cemeteries, will work to maintain the traditional practices of the
Catholic cemeteries of Tucson of free indigent burial and compassionate support
for indigent families.
Allison compared the churchs decision to work with funeral
conglomerates to that of Catholic schools who contract food services to provide
meals for students. There is also a sacred element to Catholic schools,
but we dont operate our own dairies, we dont own our own milk
trucks, he said. There is a very pragmatic, practical way to
approach this.
Fastest growing
The Vancouver-based Loewen Group reported a 53 percent rise in
cemetery revenues for 1997, according to company documents. It is North
Americas second largest and fastest growing funeral home and cemetery
operator in terms of revenue and assets, adding $507.7 million in
acquisitions in 1997, including 133 funeral homes and 172 cemeteries, a Web
site news release states.
Industry watchers say both Loewen and the church stand to benefit
financially from contracts like the one signed in Tucson where the company will
direct pre-need and at-need sales of cemetery products and services,
administration and perpetual care maintenance.
Its probably worth it just to get the churchs
mailing lists, Carlson said. She said Loewen could use its position at
the Catholic cemeteries to make referrals to Loewen-owned funeral homes.
For people who own burial sites, they can say, Dont you want
to prepay your funeral home? Theres none on campus, but there sure is one
nearby. Its going to look like the blessing of the church on that
funeral home. Its hard to buy that kind of publicity, but they obviously
did.
Allison said that after nine years of management of Tucsons
Catholic cemeteries by Los Angeles, the Loewen contract and years of
judicial management [and] generosity would make it possible for the
local church to repurchase its burial grounds.
Seeing what it can do
Allison said his experience with Loewen has shown they are
very professionally as well as personally interested in seeing this concept go
into place, in seeing what it can do for them and for a diocese of the Roman
Catholic faith.
Carlson said it is difficult to know what the motivating
factor is for the diocese. She said there could be an oral
agreement that there will be a voluntary contribution to the bishops
fund. Another industry watcher said that some have speculated that Loewen
might be advancing funds to the diocese to allow the latter to pay its debt to
Los Angeles. When NCR asked Allison about the financial arrangements, he said,
all such information would be confidential under the terms of the
agreement.
Carlson said that Loewens history with the National Baptist
Convention USA shows that the company is more than willing to share the
wealth with people in positions to steer business their way.
Carlson was referring to a 1995 agreement between Loewen and the
Baptist Convention, reportedly the countrys largest group of
African-American congregations. In August 1995, The Washington Post
reported that under the agreement, pre-need cemetery sales representatives
contracted by Loewen, churches recruiting sales representatives and the Baptist
Convention all received commissions for sales of cemetery goods and services.
The conventions cut -- 5 percent -- was destined for its Christian
Education Fund. The contract made Loewen the conventions death care
provider of choice.
The conventions president, the Rev. Henry Lyons, said he saw
the sales program as a means to assist black communities economically. Some
black funeral directors derided the program as a means for the company to gain
leverage in black communities. Large white-owned chains have had difficulty
entering this market.
The Loewen Group is presently cooperating with federal and state
investigations involving Lyons finances. Two charges of grand theft and
another of racketeering were brought against Lyons in February in a Tampa,
Fla., court. Prosecutors accused him of stealing money destined for church
projects and of using his status and the conventions status to swindle
large sums from corporations.
In July 1997, Lyons name hit the media when his wife,
Deborah Lyons, allegedly set fire to a $700,000 Florida home owned jointly by
her husband and Bernice Edwards, a high church official. Deborah Lyons later
reversed her statement to investigators that she started the fire and instead
claimed the fire was an accident. She pleaded not guilty to arson charges.
National Catholic Reporter, April 10,
1998
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