Photo: thetimes.co.uk
An 89-year-old Catholic nun who has battled pop star Katy Perry for years over the sale of a Los Angeles convent collapsed and died while attending court proceedings about the case, according to media reports and supporters.
Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, one of two ageing nuns who were fighting the sale of the eight-acre (three-hectare) convent, had earlier told KTTV as she entered the courthouse with Sister Rita Callanan: “To Katy Perry, please stop. It’s not doing anyone any good except hurting a lot of people.”
The nuns had agreed to sell their eight-acre hilltop estate to a restaurateur in 2015 for $15.5?million, with the understanding the woman would turn it into a boutique hotel. Concurrently, however, the Archdiocese made a deal to sell the Los Feliz property for $14.5 million to Perry, who planned to convert the 20,000-square-foot convent into a sprawling home. The legal battle over who will get the property has been ongoing since.
A spokeswoman for Perry, one of the world’s top-selling pop stars, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Los Angeles county medical examiner and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles did not respond to queries about the cause of death.