California Nuns Fight Sale of Convent to Pop Star Katy Perry, Accuse Her of Witchcraft

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LOS ANGELES (ChurchMilitant.com) - Legal wrangling over the sale of a Catholic convent to pop star Katy Perry has gotten contentious, after the nuns who once lived there called her "disgusting" and accused her of selling her soul to the devil.

Los Feliz Villa in Los Angeles, which once housed the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is at the center of a property battle, with the L.A. archdiocese claiming ownership, wanting to sell it to Perry for $14.5 million. The sisters argue they own the land, however, and refuse to sell it to the pop diva, whose lifestyle is cause for concern.

"[I would] not be very happy at all if Perry got the property," said Sr. Rita Callanan. "I do not like Katy Perry's lifestyle."

"I gave a lot of the things from the internet to show the archdiocese what kind of woman she was," Callanan continued. "Some of the things she does are disgusting."

Callanan, 78, and Sr. Rose Catherine Holzman, 86, argue that their order has sole rights to the land, and have even called in a signatura — the highest judicial authority at the Vatican — to intervene, after Abp. Jose Gomez sued the sisters in civil court.

"We have a lawyer in Rome," Callanan confirmed. "I just don't think the pope will let the archbishop sell to Katy Perry."

"It says in the agreement for the property everything would be handled in Rome, but he did it civilly," Callanan complained. Perry is reportedly willing to pay $10 million in cash for the property, and an additional $4.5 million to buy and renotave a house on the property currently housing priests.

The nuns detailed their recent meeting with the pop star, where they confronted her on her supposed witchcraft.

"Katy Perry was all dressed very nicely and said: 'I have this tattoo on my wrist and it says Jesus,'" said Callanan. "And I wanted to say, 'Yes, and what is the tattoo on your behind?'"

Perry, who once started out as a Christian singer, quickly went mainstream after her hit song "I Kissed a Girl," about a lesbian encounter. Perry was afterwards on record saying she sold her soul to the devil.

The nuns asked her about this claim as well as Perry's participation in a 2014 "Witch Walk" in Salem, Massachusetts. "I asked her: 'You are into witchcraft, you went to Salem,'" Callanan said.

Perry reportedly turned to someone in her entourage and asked if she had ever been to Salem.

"I said: 'Come on, you didn't know you were in Salem at a witchcraft thing? You don't remember it?" explained Callanan. "'That would stick way out in my mind. I read it, was that incorrect information?'"

She continued in her confrontation with Perry, saying, "I'm sorry, but I am just not into witchcraft and I am just not into people who are into witchcraft. It disturbs me, and that was our mother house and our retreat house, and it's sacred ground.'"

The sisters want to sell the property to a restaurateur, Dana Hollister, who has dished out $10 million for a grant deed and is willing to pay up to $5.5 million to the archdiocese to buy out the lease on the priests' home. But concerns revolve around zoning if the land is turned into a commercial property.

Judge Stephanie Bowick of the L.A. Superior Court is expected to hand down a ruling within two weeks. A status conference is scheduled to take place April 4.

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