Katy Perry wins battle for Los Angeles convent
Katy Perry has moved one step closer to becoming the owner of a Roman Catholic convent in Los Angeles.
A judge has invalidated the sale of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Feliz to a restaurateur, making the pop star the prime candidate to move in.
Perry, the daughter of Protestant pastors, initially put in a bid
for the convent last year (15) and Archdiocese officials agreed
terms with her, but nuns living at the convent had other ideas and
they decided to sell to Los Angeles restaurateur Dana
Hollister.
On Wednesday (13Apr16), Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephanie
Bowick approved the archdiocese's motion to block the sale to
Hollister in its entirety, giving Perry the go-ahead to snap up the
Roman villa-style property for $14.5 million.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Hollister had offered to buy
the former convent for $15.5 million. She had hoped to convert the
property into a hotel.
Last summer (15), two of the convent's nuns stepped up their
campaign against Perry's bid to buy the place, alleging the sale
would violate their religious vows.
Sisters Rita Callahan and Catherine Rose Holzman claimed it was
their right to sell the eight-acre estate and they had already
struck a deal with Hollister.
Legal documents obtained by the New York Times featured an email
the two nuns wrote to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, in which they
stated, "In selling to Katy Perry, we feel we are being forced to
violate our canonical vows to the Catholic Church."
They also claimed the Archdiocese officials were bullying them into
accepting Perry's sale when they would prefer the property to go to
Hollister.