Abbey casket making practice under fire

Mark Coudrain, a former chief executive for WLAE TV, leads a much simpler life now. Two years ago he scrapped the corporate hustle, was ordained a deacon, joined the Benedictine monks of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington and focused on his childhood dream of woodworking, specializing in simple unadorned cypress burial caskets for monks and the public.

It was his calling.

But now an obscure law is calling Coudrain and the Abbey criminals, saying the practice of selling caskets to parishioners without a license is illegal and could net a $2,500 fine for each violation.

“This is Big Brother picking on these poor monks,” Abbey lawyer Evans Schmidt said.

In what amounts to a battle of religious devotion versus manmade law, the abbey claims its caskets help “provide a greater understanding of the passing nature of our earthly existence,” a religious experience no manmade prohibitions can trump. In the year since the abbey opened its woodworking shop, roughly a hundred others parishioners have agreed, plunking down $1,500 to $2,000 to buy the caskets fit for a monk. It’s a pleasure parishioners seem to relish, despite the abbey’s acknowledgement of selling the caskets illegally even in the face of cease and desist order to stop.

And the Abbey takes no measures to hide it. The Clarion Harold has published stories advertising the Abbey’s caskets for sale. And the Abbey’s own Web site, www.clcabbey.com, touts the religious experience of being buried in a casket made for monks. It even provides a number to call to make a purchase.

But the problem, opponents said, is the practice is illegal in Louisiana, one of at least six states that allows only licensed funeral directors to sell caskets to the public. The Abbey, a seminary, church and college on River Road, is not considered a funeral director, according to the Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, the state agency overseeing the funeral industry.

“No one can practice the law without passing the bar. You can’t be a doctor unless you meet certain standards. The same thing is true for those who sell caskets,” said Michael Rasch, the funeral board’s attorney.

Funeral directors are licensed and taught funeral arrangements such as which type of caskets – wood or metal – and which sizes of caskets are allowed in certain cemeteries, formal training the Abbey does not have to sell caskets, Rasch said.

Rasch, through the board, issued a cease and desist order Dec. 11, 2007, after receiving several complaints from competing funeral directors.

“It’s not that we’re picking on the Catholic Church or the Catholic order,” Rasch said. “Were trying to enforce the laws of the state of Louisiana. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but it’s the law.”

That law however, is facing some opposition. State Rep. Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs, authored a bill this year that would have allowed vendors other than funeral directors, i.e. the Abbey, to sell caskets to the public. It failed, and Simon could not be reached for comment this week.

“This statute has no public policy value whatsoever,” said Schmidt, the Abbey’s attorney. “This is fundamentally the sale of a wooden box. This isn’t about health and safety issues here. This law is a perfectly protected measure to give funeral directors a monopoly.”

In Oklahoma, that argument reached the Supreme Court, where it ultimately failed. Justices in 1999 voted 2-1 to let stand the Oklahoma law that allows only funeral homes to sell caskets directly to the public. The appeal attacked the law as unconstitutional, the same claim the Abbey makes.

“This law has no legs,” Schmidt said. “It’s a foolish statute … an unconstitutional infringement on their right to free enterprise.”

But Boyd Mothe Jr., vice president of Metairie-based Mothe Funeral Homes, one of several industry insiders to file a complaint, said he respects the Abbey’s reasoning but said society can’t disobey laws because they’re not agreeable.

“Nobody wants to be out of favor with the church or raise a big stink about this, but we want everyone to be playing on the same level,” Mothe said.

He said he would “be happy” to arrange a purchase from the Abbey and then sell the caskets to clients with little to no profit. “I bet that’s true with many funeral directors,” he said.

“I realize there is something to be said about a religious artifact, a casket with a rosary from Rome on it,” he said. “Those caskets are held dear by many. I don’t want to publicly denounce the Abbey ... I just want them to follow the rules.”

But “they took an Aryan position that they were above the law, that they could do whatever they wanted to do,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Abbey’s monks are considering all options and haven’t decided whether or not to comply with the cease and desist order, Schmidt said.

“One physical symbol of the simple Benedictine life of prayer has been the pine caskets in which we monks are buried,” the Abbey wrote on its Web site, adding later, “We also hope that this enterprise (casket selling) will serve as a witness, to educate the greater community to the true meaning of death as taught by our Catholic faith.”

In the end, “the monks just want to be left alone, do their own thing, pray and build their caskets,” Schmidt said.