Judge hears monks' suit over right to build caskets

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Wearing a monk's robe, Abbot Justin Brown climbed into
the witness box on Monday (June 6) and said the only people who ever
opposed his abbey's bid to sell handmade caskets were funeral insiders
who stood to lose their statewide monopoly.

"To my knowledge, no one objected besides (them)," he told U.S.
District Judge Stanwood Duval.

Brown and the monks at St. Joseph's Abbey near Covington, La., have
tried and failed to convince Louisiana legislators to amend a state
statute that prohibits casket sales by nonlicensed funeral directors.