Sale of California convent to Katy Perry is still in dispute

April 28, 2016

A legal battle over the sale of a convent in the Los Angeles archdiocese will continue, after the religious community that once held the property asked a court to block the sale of the building to entertainer Katy Perry.

The Los Angeles archdiocese reached an agreement to sell the building to Perry after a 2015 court ruling that annulled a previous sale by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The court ruled that the earlier sale was invalid, because Archbishop Jose Gomez had legal control over the property.

However, the sisters are now arguing that last year’s court ruling was based on an inaccurate translation of a Vatican document. According to the sisters’ attorney, the document indicated that a Vatican tribunal was still weighing the sisters’ claim to control of the property; the court interpreted the decree to mean that the Church backed the claim of the archdiocese.

Michael Hennigan, a lawyer for the Los Angeles archdiocese, rejected the sisters’ latest claim. He said that the document presented to the court had been properly translated, and the sisters’ bid to sell the property was invalid.

The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a small group of aging religious, has protested the archdiocesan bid for control of the sale on two grounds: because the sisters want to control the proceeds of the sale, to cover their retirement costs; and because they object to selling the property to Katy Perry.

 

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Further information:

• Nuns roar back at Katy Perry, claiming mistranslation of Vatican decree allowing purchase of convent (Fox)
• California court deals setback to Sisters, paves way for sale of property to Katy Perry (CWN, 8/4/2015)