After a story in the New York Post sparked new interest in the drama of a years-long legal dispute involving Katy Perry and the sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has reiterated their support for the care and well-being of the sisters.
“The main concern of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is and always has been the care and well-being of all the IHM Sisters,” the archdiocese said June 9.
“More than 10 years ago, as the members of the order declined to only five elderly Sisters, the Archbishop of Los Angeles undertook responsibility for their future care and well-being. Since then, the Archdiocese has continuously provided, on behalf of the IHM Institute, for all the living, medical and other costs for care of Sister Rita and all remaining IHM Sisters,” the archdiocese added.
The archdiocese issued the statement in response to an interview that Sr. Rita Callahan, 81, gave to the New York Post, published June 8. Callahan, an IHM sister, told the New York Post that Perry had “blood on her hands” after another IHM sister, 89 year-old Sr. Catherine Rose Holzman, collapsed and died in a Los Angeles courtroom last year during ongoing legal proceedings over the sale of the sisters’ convent.
According to the interview Callahan gave to the New York Post, Holtzman’s last words were: “Katy Perry. Please stop.”
The legal dispute is over the sisters’ former convent, which the remaining five, retired sisters vacated in 2011. According to the New York Post, the archdiocese “forced” the sisters to move. In their statement, the archdiocese said the sisters left the convent “because it could no longer accommodate their physical needs, and after the property became too costly for the retired Sisters to maintain.”
According to the archdiocese, the IHM sisters agreed in 2014 to let the Archdiocese of Los Angeles sell their convent on their behalf, and with the agreement that the proceeds of any sale would go toward the care and well-being of the remaining IHM Sisters, who had all moved from the convent to retirement facilities.
“In 2015, the Archdiocese, on behalf of the IHM Institute, entered into an agreement with singer Katy Perry for Ms. Perry to purchase the property for $14.5 million,” the archdiocese stated.
The archdiocese added that Perry’s “all cash” offer, along with her plans to use the property as a family home and not for commercial purposes, seemed to be what was best for the sisters’ needs and appropriate for the property’s “rich history.”
At the same time, the IHM sisters, not wanting their property to go to Perry, tried to sell their convent to a businesswoman named Dana Hollister.
“We asked Dana to buy our property as we didn’t want it to go to Katy Perry. Yes, we put the wheels in motion to sell our property,” Callanan told the New York Post. “Was it legal? Probably not entirely.”
That sale was eventually blocked by the archdiocese, after a long legal battle.
“The Archdiocese fully supported all of the Sisters throughout this process to ensure they were cared for during this lengthy legal battle,” the archdiocese stated. “The Archdiocese has always sought to act in the best interest of all IHM Sisters, both to fulfill their request to sell the Institute’s property and to provide for their care.”
The archdiocese said it will “continue to be in communication” with Perry about her “continued interest in the property.”
“Regardless of any sale, the Archdiocese has and will continue to provide and care for all the IHM Sisters for the rest of their lives,” the archdiocese said.
The above comes from a June 11 story on the Catholic News Agency website.
So the sister admits they engaged in fraud willfully: “Was it legal? Probably not entirely.”
I don’t have any sympathy for them after the shenanigans they pulled and the money and time they wasted.
So your sympathies are with Katy Perry, who supports, among other things, killing of innocent babies. To you that is probably not so serious.
Your illogical conclusion is irrelevant, even if it happens by accident to be true, which I doubt. Sympathies are irrelevant in deciding whether a real estate transaction is legal. All that matters in a real estate transaction is the buyer’s ability to purchase and the seller’s having title to sell. If the sisters attempted to sell property without having title to the property, yes that was fraud and deceit.
These poor nuns were once very excellent — and were tragically betrayed by their Church, in the 1960s, with Vatican II!!! Have RESPECT for them! Have a a HEART for them!! They once were the good nuns who taught you — and your parents, and your grandparents!– and your children!– in your parish school! They gave their lives for Christ— and got tragically BETRAYED by their Church! MAKES ME SICK!!
ANONYMOUS— the Immaculate Heart Sisters betrayed themselves by their own immoral behavior. No one else is to blame.
After Vatican II, the Church made it clear– that all of the religious orders’ way of life, was no longer acceptable– and it all was called into question, to be suddenly and radically changed. As a result– thousands of good nuns left, for secular life! Not fair to these good sisters! The ones who stayed, ended up getting “hoodwinked” and misled, by silly, Godless psychologists! Almost all of the nuns we once had at our parish school, left religious life! And then, a few years later– our parish school closed! Our Church undermined and betrayed the good nuns completely, to begin with!
This once-thriving and poplar teaching order of nuns fell to pieces, right after Vatican II! We all saw it happen! They also got into the sick, secular modern psychology, and “encounter groups!” They lost their minds!– lost their souls!— lost everything! A mature nun, in charge of a class of children or young adults– should already know herself, know her religious beliefs, know the kids she will teach– and be ready to teach them, like a mature adult! And ready for acceptance of the religious discipline, required of her religious order! Those nuns we all admired — must have been real “goofballs!!” And we never knew it— until the late 1960s!
Why were the Fathers of Vatican II in such a big rush, to “modernize” the Church— obedient to Pope St. John XXIII– “aggiornamento??” And is “modernizing” totally a good thing?? Instead– why not just make necessary improvements, as needed?? What was so “wrong,” with the old Latin Mass?? And– what was honestly so “wrong,” with the good nuns, teaching at your parish school?? Weren’t they doing a good job?? Why did the Church suddenly mislead them into abandoning their religious vocations— destroying them!– all for a bunch of worthless, modern garbage?? And a worthless, modern, brazen, sinful atheist– to take over the L.A. IHM convent…why??
In their attempt to “modernize” the Church, the hierarchy placed it firmly in the time frame in which they were living, that is, the 1960s. So we now have a church mired in that lunatic decade. We still have felt banners on church walls and guitar players providing music at Mass. We have churches in the round and the ghosts of Peter Paul and Mary — the vocalists, not the saints — flitting around the sanctuaries. The platitudes of the sixties linger in the sermons we hear; and despite all the clear signs to the contrary, we are assured that all is well, and that the Church took the right road when it abandoned its heritage. What could have prompted the Church leadership to think that decorations by Sister Corita Kent would appeal to the…
Archbishop and all those involved in this shameful selling of Church property to this enemy of Faith will have to account for their actions and their mistreatment (to put it mildly) of these faithful nuns.May God have mercy on them.
So why not list the property for sale? Perhaps it will bring more than Perry”s $14.5 mill offer.
On the downside, is the Archdioceses commitment unlimited? What if the sales proceeds run out before the last of the Nuns dies?
Assuming that the sisters’ deal went through, with only one surviving sister, where would the proceeds of the sale go, to Sister Calahan personally?
Maybe Sister Calahan, if she got the money, would follow the example of Sister Mary Margaret Kneuper, of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, and go on gambling junkets.