The following comes from a June 13 story in the Sacramento Bee.
The Catholic diocese of Sacramento has purchased a funeral home in Land Park, making it only the fifth diocese in the nation to offer mortuary services.
The local Catholic Church’s purchase of the George Klumpp Chapel of Flowers on Riverside Boulevard followed more than 18 months of discussion and inquiries by the diocese, according to diocese spokesman Kevin Eckery.
Eckery said that the purchase was spurred by the requests of local Catholics who wanted “forms of assurance or were just sort of looking for ways to reduce their own stress levels.”
Though the purchase price was not disclosed, county records indicate that the property recently was assessed at more than $900,000.
While Catholic churches have traditionally maintained cemeteries for Catholics and their families, the Sacramento diocese’s purchase of the Klumpp mortuary makes Sacramento the third in California to offer mortuary services.
In a controversial move, Los Angeles’ archdiocese began leasing cemetery space to a for-profit funeral home company in 1999, and the diocese of Oakland bought its first mortuary in 2006.
Read more here,
This could be a good thing, but it sure would be nice if our Catholic diocese owned cemeteries and mortuaries had lower prices than the non-Catholic run cemeteries and mortuaries. I have a very big problem with Catholic run funeral homes and cemeteries making a large profits and commission as a result of the loss of loves ones. It should be a crime the way mortuaries and cemeteries take advantage of emotionally vulnerable people. I know here in my own diocese, the diocese of Orange, the Catholic cemeteries charge alot for plots and I’m pretty sure the employees work off commission. I hear of so many grieving Catholic families nearly going into debt just to have their loved ones remains be entered into one of our three Catholic cemeteries in this diocese. What a shame
Lorraine,
Yes, that could be a good thing but Lorraine you have to remember that many of our chanceries have become profit making corporations instead of rock solid defenders of the teachings of the Catholic Church. If they listened to what you just wrote then by golly that just might point out the fact that they are also charging exorbitant prices for “watered down” Catholic school tuition.
Jesus never asked his apostles to become corporate business men so they could amass large plots of land or property so they could fleece his sheep through “business endeavors”. When a Catholic school ceases to teach and uphold “all” Church teaching then like the cemetery, it too becomes more of a a profit making business endeavor that a Christlike witness of the Catholic Church. Where is the compassion for the living and the reverence for the dead. Charging exorbitant burial prices is taking unholy advantage of Christ’s sheep at their most vulnerable moment.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Matthew 8:22 “But Jesus said to him: Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”
Timothy 4:2,5 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine…
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Wednesday that clergy who were “careerists” or “social climbers” were doing serious damage to the Catholic Church, his latest utterance aimed at instilling a sense of frugality and service in the Vatican and beyond.
Francis, 76, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, made the comments while addressing a gathering of superiors general of orders of nuns from around the world.
“Men and women of the Church who are careerists, social climbers, who use the people, the Church, brothers and sisters – those they should serve – as a springboard for their own ambitions and personal interests do great damage to the Church,” he said.
“We learn poverty from the humble, the poor, the sick,” he added, urging clergy to work with those on the margins of society and shun the “idols of materialism” that cloud the true meaning of life.”
Catherine,
you are so right about the exorbitant tuition they charge to educate our children here in the Los Angeles and Orange Diocese. Our Catholic school tuition, especially here in the diocese of Orange, has become so expensive. A good example is Mater Dei HS. At $11,950, Mater Dei’s yearly tuition, for Catholics, and $13,350 for non Catholics. Who can afford that? Not the the majority of Catholic families living in Orange County. Definitely not large families, which explains why so many large Catholic families
homeschool. Mater Dei is located in Santa Ana, which is a predominately Latino city, about 78% Latino. The neighborhood where Mater Dei is located is about 97% Latino, but only a handful of Mater Dei students come from the surrounding neighborhoods. Latino students are in the minority at Mater Dei. I live in Santa Ana and my children attended Mater Dei High School. I’m hoping and praying that our new bishop makes some changes in the Catholic schools and cemeteries and makes both more affordable for Catholic families.
I have to agree. The cost of funeral services and burials in Catholic cemeteries is approaching $20,000 from what I hear from friends who have recently buried loved ones. Frankly we cannot afford $40,000 for both of us. Am positive the government has added all kinds of costs to funerals for environmental concerns, etc. I understand some Catholics in our area are planning to be buried at a nearby non-Catholic cemetery and have the grave blessed. It is a lot farther to drive to visit our dearly departed and pray, but…Cremation looks better and better, for a lower cost. One can always order a casket from the Trappist monks who make them; they will ship it out when needed or you can keep it in your home and use for storage. I wonder if the matter of very costly funerals has ever been addressed by our bishops. Poor people just cannot afford to die and be buried.
One more thing for Diocese Bishop Jaime Soto to supervise. He is responsible for EVERYTHING “Catholic’ within his own Diocese.
A Diocese is a Bishop’s “Church”. ” Each bishop is the lawful pastor only of the portion of the flock entrusted to his care ” – his own Diocese.
CCC: ” 1560 As Christ’s vicar, each bishop has the pastoral care of the particular Church entrusted to him,
but at the same time he bears collegially with all his brothers in the episcopacy the solicitude for all the Churches:
Though each bishop is the lawful pastor only of the portion of the flock entrusted to his care,
as a legitimate successor of the apostles he is, by divine institution and precept, responsible with the other bishops for the apostolic mission of the Church.”
You can always tell when a Diocese’s money situation is OK…..they go off and buy a white elephant somewhere.
The Diocesan Stewardship Campaign still raises money from Catholic households, but this is the first I’ve heard that buying a mortuary is part of the program. So much for transparency! If you can afford a mortuary, why do you need money for other Diocesan services?
Typical Catholic Church decision……off the wall, no accountability, and outside the scope of what we should be doing.
Wonderful to read of this happening and reason dictates that it is a fine fine thing to offer.
Regarding the high Cost of Burials and Funerals, the Catholic Church does allow cremations.
If you are a Senior Citizen and paid into Social Security all your life, you get $250 toward a burial.
CCC: ” 2301 Autopsies can be morally permitted for legal inquests or scientific research.
The free gift of organs after death is legitimate and can be meritorious.
The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body. “
If you’re worried about the costs of burial, try planning.
Every once in a while my local Catholic cemetery would run a special in our bulletin. 15% off, 100% financed with zero interest. Mine (I bought an estate plot with 4 spaces including the concrete crypts and the opening/closing costs) was 50 bucks a month for XY months.
I ordered my own headstone on-line about two years later and had it set. Now all I need to do is buy a casket and have my date of death etched onto the stone.
“I ordered my own headstone on-line about two years later and had it set. Now all I need to do is buy a casket and have my date of death etched onto the stone.”
In a cemetery in California in the future:
Here lies the body of The Great R.B. Rodda
Who treated some of his fellow Catholics as if they were not worth one iota
They forgave him for what he did for forgiveness should know no quota.
In a Thurmont, Maryland, cemetery:
Here lies an Atheist
All dressed up
And no place to go.
In a London, England cemetery:
Here lies Ann Mann,
Who lived an old maid
But died an old Mann.
Dec. 8, 1767
In a Ribbesford, England, cemetery:
The children of Israel wanted bread
And the Lord sent them manna,
Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife,
And the Devil sent him Anna.
Playing with names in a Ruidoso, New Mexico, cemetery:
Here lies
Johnny Yeast
Pardon me
For not rising.
Memory of an accident in a Uniontown, Pennsylvania cemetery:
Here lies the body
of Jonathan Blake
Stepped on the gas
Instead of the brake.
In a Silver City, Nevada, cemetery:
Here lays Butch,
We planted him raw.
He was quick on the trigger,
But slow on the draw.
the Diocese of Orange “sales people” at cemeteries are on commission. And it is quite evident when they are “selling you”. The “sales force” at Good Shepherd is directed by a woman who say’s theirs is a “ministry”. Yeah. – $15,000,000 in profit -PROFIT!!! to Bishop Brown during his 13 years . FIFTEEN MILLION!! – on the backs of children burying their parents and parents burying their children. Doesn’t sound like any “ministry” I’ve ever heard of.
Angela, are you sure it is $15,000 in profit? What is the total cost of a burial and do you know how much percentage their (the sales people) commission is? I understand that they (the cemeteries) need to make some profit, enough to pay their staff and for the upkeep of the grounds and facilities but a profit of FIFTEEN MILLION? That it’s a sin! I sincerely hope Bishop Brown didn’t use any of that money to pay for sex abuse settlements or to fund the new cathedral. Any small Profits made by the cemeteries should stay in the cemeteries and if a they are using the profit for anything else they should disclose that info to their bereaved customers.
Here’s a thought, the Diocese of Orange should take some of that 15 million and set up a fund to help low income Catholic families bury their deceased loved ones. If the death of a loved one isn’t bad enough, trying to bury a loved one while going into debt and paying off that debt for the next 10 years is a constant reminder of the loss of the loved one
Loraine – $15,000,000. It IS MILLION -and it is PROFIT!! – that’s AFTER they pay everything and everyone. That money went straight back to Bishop Brown’s kitty.
Thanks for clarifying that for me, Angela. It is just horrible to think that Bishop Brown would do that. Where was his compassion? There is something wrong when the church is charging so much (and making a profit) during which for many is a tragic and life altering event.