After nearly two years of legal battles with five elderly nuns and a handful of priests, Katy Perry has been granted the right to purchase an eight-acre convent in Los Angeles. The victory came in the form of a decision from a Los Angeles Superior Court judge who chose Katy over the will of the nuns.
The property in question is a large Italianate complex in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles that occupies a full city block. For decades the home was the residence of Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary order of nuns. The home was built in 1927 for KFI-AM founder Earle C. Anthony. In the 1950s, the house sold to Daniel and Bernardine Donohue, Catholic philanthropists. After his wife's death in the late 1960s, Donohue sold the property to the nuns at a discount.
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Perry has reportedly had her eye on the property since 2012. The nuns moved out in 2011 and in May 2015, Perry met with the five remaining nuns at the request of the archbishop. At the time, three of the nuns agreed to back Perry's plans for the property, but the remaining two did not. Sister Catherine Rose and Sister Rita entered into a deal with restaurateur Dana Hollister instead.
The problem is, the actual ownership of the convent wasn't clear. The nuns claimed to own it outright. So did the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and they wanted to sell the property to Perry, not Hollister.
In the court ruling, the judge found that the nuns did not have the authority to sell the property to Hollister. They would have needed the consent of the Pope to sell the property which they did not have.
This is the second time the courts have chosen Perry over the nuns. In April 2016, the court ruled that the sale of the convent to Hollister was invalid.
Perry is expected to pay the Archdiocese of Los Angeles $14.5 million for the estate. She reportedly wants to move into the convent with her mother and grandmother to drink tea and "find herself."
