Pop singer Katy Perry has delayed her bid to purchase a disused a former Los Angeles convent. This is due to a legal battle that has developed between a group of elderly nuns and the city’s archbishop, with Perry at the center.
The issue is that the archdiocese is keen to sell the old convent to Perry for a $14.5 million price tag. Perry plans to build a luxury mansion on the site, utilizing the old convent building. The convent was once home to 100 worshiping nuns.
The surviving nuns, who have since moved on to pastures anew, are not keen about the plans for their former residence. Of the 100 original sisters, just five are left alive. The five are aged between 77 and 88 years and they are not fans of “I Kissed a Girl.” The Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary lived in the convent for over 40 years before finding the upkeep, a reflection of size of the place, too big a task.
The preference of the nuns is to sell the complex to a local businesswoman, Dana Hollister, and they went as far as to sign the relevant papers for the property transfer. However, a Los Angeles judge has declared the sale to be invalid. With the Archdiocese of Los Angeles putting in a counter-sale plan to Perry, the case will now take many months to resolve. The issue is over who has the rights to sell the property: the nuns or the city’s Archbishop, Jose H Gomez.
The nuns are certainly not keen on selling to Katy Perry. Sister Rita Callanan told the L.A. Times she had looked up Perry online. The sister was not impressed with the likes of “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream.”
“I found her videos,” she said. “I wasn’t happy with any of it.”
