Newark archdiocese in battle with gravestone makers, funeral directors
December 23, 2014
In New Jersey, small businesses that produce headstones and operate funeral homes are locked in a political battle with the Archdiocese of Newark.
A bill pending in the state legislature would make it illegal for religious institutions that operate cemeteries to sell gravestones or operate funeral homes. Private vendors argue that the Newark archdiocese is using its dominant position in cemeteries, as well as its non-profit status, to seize the market from small private businesses.
“They’re carrying on essentially a for-profit enterprise,” Wilson Beebe, the executive director of the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association, told the New York Times. He reported that the archdiocesan cemeteries have seized 25% of the market in headstones, and that figure is rising quickly. Private providers cannot compete with the cost and convenience offered by one-stop service at the Catholic cemeteries, he said.
Newark’s Archbishop John Myers has urged Catholics to oppose the legislation, claiming that it infringes on religious freedom. “We cannot stand by and watch the Legislature ignore the religious freedom we enjoy in this country as they attempt to insert themselves into the religious practice of Christian burial,” he wrote in a letter distributed to parishioners in the archdiocese.
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