Nun Battling Katy Perry Over $15M Convent Dies After Telling Pop Star to Stop 'Hurting People'
One of the two nuns involved in a years-long legal battle with international pop star Katy Perry over over the sale of a Catholic convent in Southern California collapsed and died in court. In an interview hours before her death, the nun told Perry she is "hurting a lot of people."
The 89-year-old nun, Catherine Rose Holzman from the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died Friday during a court proceeding related to the case over the sale of the 8-acre property in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, according to Fox 11.
The other nun involved in the legal fight is Sister Rita Callanan.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"Katy Perry, please stop. It's not doing anyone any good except hurting a lot of people," Holzman said hours before her death in an interview with Fox.
"You have stolen the property of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart. Please archbishop ... Do what is right in your heart," Callanan added.
The nuns, who said they had documents proving they are the rightful owners, had not lived in the property for over six years, but tried to stop the local archdiocese from selling it to the pop star for $14.5 million by making a deal with restaurateur Dana Hollister for $15.5 million.
"We asked her (Hollister) to save us, to buy the property. She had nothing to do with forcing herself on us," Holzman told Fox.
Hollister was accused of filing a grant deed behind the archdiocese's back which led to this legal dispute.
A jury found last November that Hollister interfered with Perry's property deal and asked her to pay millions to the archdiocese and the pop star.
The money was meant to cover the lawyer fees that had been racked up in court by both parties after a judge ruled that the nuns had no legal right to sell the property to Hollister. Michael Geibelson, the lawyer for the restaurateur and entrepreneur, insisted at the time that his client thought she had legal rights to sign a contract for the property and was not intentionally trying to stop the sale to Perry.
The sisters said they previously spoke with Archbishop Jose Gomez, who agreed they could choose who would purchase the property, but they could not get a hold of him once they decided to move forward with Hollister, The Los Angeles Times previously reported.
A nun told the Times earlier that many were moved out of the property against their will in 2011.
The nuns said they gathered their money collectively to purchase the property at a discount rate from a benefactor decades ago and were worried that if the diocese completed the sale to Perry, the sisters would not see any of the money which was needed to cover their living expenses.
The nuns said that Perry met with them and shared her plans to move her mother and grandmother into the property and meditate there. However, they did not agree with some of her music and music videos.
The sisters said that Perry visited and showed them her Jesus tattoo and sang "Oh Happy Day."
"Well, I found Katy Perry and I found her videos and ... if it's all right to say, I wasn't happy with any of it," Sister Callanan previously told The Times.
