Katy Perry’s Legal Battle With Nuns Over an L.A. Convent

Katy Perry’s convent lawsuit was a multi-year Los Angeles court fight over an eight-acre former convent in Los Feliz that the singer tried to buy in 2013 for $14.5 million in cash. Two of the five elderly nuns who had lived there tried to block the deal by selling the property to a local restaurateur instead. Perry and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles sued, won a ruling that the nuns had no authority to sell, and secured roughly $15 million in verdicts against the competing buyer. Perry, however, never clearly completed the purchase.

The Property and the Two Competing Buyers

The disputed estate sits on Waverly Drive in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles and includes a 22,000-square-foot villa-style convent building. It belonged to the California Institute of the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IHM). By the early 2000s only five elderly sisters remained in the order, and in 2011 the Archdiocese directed them to move out, citing the building’s cost and accessibility.¹

Perry offered $14.5 million in cash in early 2013, plus a commitment to provide a replacement property, valued at $4.5 million, for an adjoining House of Prayer used by priests. Archbishop Jose Gomez accepted.²³

In 2014, two of the sisters — Catherine Rose Holzman and Rita Callanan — signed a competing deal to sell the property to Dana Hollister, a restaurateur and developer, for a nominal $15.5 million. Hollister planned a boutique hotel. Her terms were far weaker than Perry’s on paper: $44,000 upfront with a promissory note for the balance, against Perry’s all-cash offer.⁴⁵

Why the Two Nuns Opposed Perry

Holzman and Callanan objected on both financial and religious grounds. They feared the Archdiocese would keep the sale proceeds without adequately providing for their retirement.⁶ Holzman cited a video in which Perry joked about selling her soul to the devil and, in a 2015 interview, said: “Katy Perry represents everything we don’t believe in. It would be a sin to sell to her.”⁷ Callanan said that after watching Perry’s music videos online she was “not happy with any of it.”⁸

Perry visited the sisters at a religious retirement home in Cheviot Hills, showed them a Jesus tattoo on her wrist, and sang the gospel hymn “Oh, Happy Day.” It didn’t work.⁴ The sisters were also not united; at least one, Jean-Marie Dunne, supported the sale to Perry, trusting that Archbishop Gomez would use the proceeds for their care.⁹

The Ruling That Decided the Case

The Archdiocese sued in Los Angeles Superior Court (Case No. BC585604) to block the Hollister deal, and Perry’s company Bird Nest LLC sued Hollister for interference.⁷ The central legal question was who had the authority to sell. Under canon law, the Archdiocese argued, any sale of church property valued at more than $7.5 million required written approval from both the Archbishop and the Vatican, and the sisters had never sought either.⁴

In April 2016, Judge Stephanie Bowick agreed. She ruled that the sisters lacked authority to sell without the required approvals, that the Archdiocese held legal authority over the estate, and she voided the sale to Hollister.¹⁰ The path to Perry’s purchase was clear on the state-court side, though final Vatican approval was still required.¹¹

A Partial Reversal on Appeal

The following month, Judge Bowick ordered Sisters Callanan and Holzman to turn over their institute’s books, records, and assets to the Archdiocese. In July 2017, the California Court of Appeal for the Second District vacated that turnover order in an unpublished opinion by Justice Thomas Willhite, finding that the Archdiocese had never requested that relief in its complaint and the sisters had never been named as defendants.⁸ The underlying voiding of the Hollister sale was not disturbed.

The Verdict Against Hollister

In November 2017, a jury found that Hollister had intentionally interfered with Perry’s purchase and acted with “malice, oppression or fraud,” awarding the Archdiocese $3.47 million in attorney fees and Perry’s company $1.57 million.¹²¹³ A second phase in December 2017 added $10 million in punitive damages, split roughly two-thirds to the Archdiocese and one-third to Perry. The total came to about $15 million. Hollister’s attorney said she planned to appeal and noted her assets were approximately $4 million.⁴

Sister Holzman’s Death in Court

On the morning of March 9, 2018, Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, then 89, appeared alongside Sister Callanan on a local Fox affiliate and said on camera: “To Katy Perry, please stop. It’s not doing anyone any good except hurting a lot of people.”⁶

Hours later, Holzman collapsed and died in a Los Angeles courtroom while attending an initial bankruptcy hearing for Hollister, who had filed for Chapter 11 protection earlier that month. Her plea to Perry was made in the television interview earlier that day, not in the courtroom itself, though it was widely reported as her “last words.”¹⁴ Sister Callanan afterward told the New York Post that Perry “has blood on her hands.”⁷

Whether Anyone Ever Collected

Hollister filed for bankruptcy in March 2018, and as of December 2021 the Chapter 11 case remained active. The punitive damages had been reduced from $10 million to $6.5 million. Combined with $5 million in compensatory damages, Perry’s company and the Archdiocese were classified as unsecured judgment creditors and junior lienholders on Hollister’s Los Angeles mansion known as the “Paramour.”¹⁵ The bankruptcy record showed disputes over Hollister’s assets and financing, with no indication the debts to Perry or the Archdiocese had been paid.¹⁶

Did Katy Perry Ever Get the Convent?

No clear yes. Even after winning in court, Perry’s purchase still required final Vatican approval, which was conditioned on her securing a replacement location for the House of Prayer. That condition had not been met as of the last available reporting.¹⁷ By mid-2019 the property was reported to be back on the market.⁷ Later reporting noted that the site continued to host a House of Prayer run by the Archdiocese, and it remained unclear who owned the property.¹⁸

By January 2021, only one of the original five IHM sisters was still living, and she had been taken into the care of another religious order.¹⁹ The Archdiocese said in a 2019 statement that it had “continuously provided, on behalf of the IHM Institute, for all the living, medical and other costs for care” of the sisters and would keep doing so for the rest of their lives.²⁰

1
EWTN News. LA Archdiocese Reiterates Support for Religious Sisters in Convent Dispute
2
CBS News. Katy Perry Wins $1.57 Million From Woman Who Interfered With Convent Sale
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Billboard. Timeline of Katy Perrys Legal Dispute Over Los Feliz Convent
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BBC News. Katy Perry Wins Convent Legal Battle
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The Guardian. Katy Perry Wins $5M Damages Following Lawsuit Over Los Angeles Convent
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NPR. Nun Involved in Katy Perry Convent Lawsuit Collapses and Dies in Court
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Business Insider. Katy Perry Nuns Los Angeles Convent Sale Feud Timeline
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Metropolitan News-Enterprise. Convent Property Dispute
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Los Angeles Times. Nuns and the Convent Sale
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The Guardian. Katy Perry Convent Lawsuit Victory
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ABC7. Katy Perry Wins Major Court Victory in Battle for Former Los Feliz Convent
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Variety. Katy Perry and Archdiocese Win in Convent Dispute
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McKool Smith. Convent Sale Trial Victory
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America Magazine. Everything Youre Hearing About Katy Perry and LA Catholic Sisters
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Metropolitan News-Enterprise. Hollister Bankruptcy Proceedings
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U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California. Hollister Memorandum Decision
17
Billboard. Katy Perrys Convent Purchase Now Awaiting Vatican Approval
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Architectural Digest. Katy Perry Real Estate Controversies
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Global Sisters Report. Sundance Film Features Immaculate Heart Communitys 50-Year Journey
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Angelus News. Statement on the Well-Being of IHM Sister Rita Callanan