LOS ANGELES -- The Archdiocese of Los Angeles bypassed local mortuaries and contracted with a for-profit company to build funeral homes at tax-exempt church cemeteries that will provide one-stop embalming, casketing, chapel service and burial.
The deal, which will make the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese only the second to put mortuaries on church property, has prompted complaints of unfair competition from angry funeral directors, some of whom have served the archdiocese for more than a century.The archdiocese, which has a flock of 3.6 million, made a deal with mortuary consolidator Stewart Enterprises Inc. in 1998 to build funeral homes at six of the 11 tax-exempt, consecrated graveyards it operates in Southern California and at two it runs in the Tucson, Ariz., diocese.
Archdiocese and Stewart officials refused to discuss the value of the deal or how much the church will likely earn.
The deal has angered rivals, who contend the church's prestige and nonprofit status put them at a distinct disadvantage.
"It's wrong. The church should not engage in competition with private enterprise," says John J. Horan, operator of five mortuaries in Denver, the only other U.S. archdiocese with a mortuary on its property. The Denver archdiocese owns its funeral home outright.
"Imagine how persuasive the church can be," Horan says. "It's kind of hard to fight a multimillion-dollar industry like the church."
Horan says his funerals dropped from 800 a year to about 500 when the Catholic mortuary opened there. At least one traditionally Catholic funeral home went out of business.
The 100-odd Los Angeles-area mortuaries were not allowed to bid for the archdiocese cemetery work.