According to Billboard, things are riling up between the nuns and the Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, both of whom want to sell the convent property to different parties.
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The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary asked for a temporary restraining order against the archdiocese, which is suing to stop the nuns from selling the villa-style hilltop property in Los Angeles’ Los Feliz section to restaurateur Dana Hollister for $15.5 million.
Hollister and the nuns, meanwhile, aren’t sitting by quietly. “They’re not dumb at all”, she said Wednesday. “They are by no means fragile”.
The involvement of Perry as well as infighting between the nuns and archbishop packed the courtroom Thursday with journalists, concerned residents, Hollister and two of the nuns. They all moved out in 2011 and now live separately, including in retirement homes. A judge is set to clear things up between the two and find out whether Hollister, who’s already given the sisters a down payment of $100,000 and promises to pay $9.9 million more at a later date, should be temporarily blocked from entering the property, as she’s already begun to clean it up in preparation for renovations.
The archdiocese filed suit to block that deal, asserting that only the church – and not the sisters – can sign off on the sale. Earlier this month, one of the other sisters who formerly lived in the convent, came forward claiming that someone had forged her signature in the Hollister deal. Michael Hennigan, the lawyer for the archdiocese. Hollister, who lives in another former convent nearby, said she’s done some work, restoring the pool and removing an altar from the main room, which has a 30-foot ceiling and hand-carved fireplace. The injunction against Hollister will be addressed, and the archdiocese will make the argument that the sale of the convent to her is invalid.
The nuns say the Archbishop of Los Angeles has no legal right to sell the eight acres of property to “California Gurls” singer as the archbishop elected himself while the order’s counsel was traveling. The nuns opposed selling the property to Perry, whose fame was ignited by an ode to sexual experimentation, “I Kissed a Girl”.
Perry did not attend the hearing, but her lawyer watched the proceedings.
This month, attorneys representing the sisters argued that church leaders made a “hostile takeover” in June when they designated new officers to oversee the religious order’s nonprofit institute.
The archdiocese and nuns agree the property, which was bestowed to the sisters by a devout Catholic who wanted them to keep him in their prayers, should be sold.
Chalfant noted that the nuns did not properly follow their own procedures when they agreed to sell the convent to Hollister in June. The nuns are slated to appear before the judge Thursday, when the archdiocese’s lawyers will call for nullifying the sale to Hollister. They will return again in October to discuss who has legal control over the property.
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Hollister says at this point she doesn’t know exactly what she will do with the property, but said: “It should be a part of this world, and it needs to be a part of the world”. She called the archdiocese short on “humility and honesty” in her e-mail, and the men in charge “rather obsessed with their misconception of their sovereign, ecclesiastical canonical importance”.
