Vatican Takes Sides in Katy Perry Convent War
LOS ANGELES (CN) — The Vatican has dealt a setback to two nuns fighting Katy Perry's efforts to buy their Los Feliz convent by issuing a decree that authorizes the Los Angeles Archdiocese to control and manage the property.
Sisters Rita Callahan and Catherine Holzman sued Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez last year to block the $14.5 million sale of the convent to Perry, claiming the archdiocese did not have the authority to sell it. The nuns' preferred buyer is developer Dana Hollister, who wants to turn the eight-acre property into a boutique hotel.
In May, the sisters' attorney John Scholnick told Superior Court Judge Stephanie Bowick that letters from church officials submitted to the court make clear that Rome had yet to rule on the matter.
But a decree obtained by Courthouse News and dated July 7 hands control of the property to the archbishop and says he has governing authority over the sisters' institute, Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In addition to Callanan and Holzman, three other sisters are part of the institute.
Counsel for the parties were in Bowick's courtroom on Tuesday for a status conference but continued the hearing until Oct. 27 while they await a ruling from the LA-based Second Appellate District.
The church's attorney Michael Hennigan told Bowick that he expects the court to rule "any day."
Earlier this year, the appeals court put the brakes on Perry's plan to buy the convent and convert it into a residence after staying a ruling that Gomez and the Los Angeles Archdiocese have a legal right to sell to the pop star.
The same order had granted in part Perry's motion for a judgment on the pleadings, but stopped shy of validating the star's offer for the convent.
A letter from the Vatican and decree establishing the archbishop's authority are attached to court papers filed at the appeals court on July 26. The decree states that Gomez has been appointed in "light of the recent canonical and civil controversies which have arisen regarding the administration of the temporal goods of the institute."
In an accompanying letter, Archbishop Secretary Jose Rodriguez Carballo confirms the appointment of the archbishop as pontifical commissary.
"Following a careful study of the document submitted regarding the controversy which has arisen between two of the five members of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary regarding the sale of the Waverly Street Property, the need for a duly authorized person to be appointed as Pontifical Commissary was recognized," Carballo wrote.
The church's attorney Robert Mockler argues in the filing that the decree should end the nuns' appeal.
"In confirming the Archbishop's control over the institute, the Dicastery implicitly rejected all of the issues on which petitioners claimed they needed discovery in connection with the motion for summary adjudication. Civil courts must defer to this determination by the highest ecclesiastical authority of the church," the McKool Smith attorney writes.
Perry's company Bird's Nest has sued Hollister claiming she is an "opportunistic developer" who persuaded the nuns they had authority to sell the property, even though that power belongs to the archbishop.
The nuns have stated that they find the "Teenage Dream" and "Roar" singer's public unappealing.
Before she courted controversy among some sectors of the American public with her breakout hit, "I Kissed a Girl," Perry began her career with a Christian rock album that she released under her real name, Kate Hudson. Perry was raised by evangelical parents in Santa Barbara.
以前、ロサンゼルスの修道院を己の住宅にしようと暗躍している『ミュージシャン』のケイティ・ペリーを拙ブログで二度に渡りその傲慢さを厳しく私は批判した。
だが、ペリー被告はバチカン関係者にその場しのぎの言い逃れでアピールしたらしい。翻訳に加筆したものをここに掲載する。
バチカン市国、ケイティ・ペリーの「主張」を認める(マット・レイノルズ記者)
バチカン市国はロス・フェリス修道院の所有権を巡る争いで、『ミュージシャン』のケイティ・ペリーの主張を「認める」ようリサ・キャラハン修道女およびキャサリン・ホルマン修道女(国際法上正統たる所有者である)に『命じた』(この『命令』は国際法上完全に無効である)。
両者はペリー被告に1450万ドルで修道院の売却を『許した』『ロサンゼルス大司教』ホセ・ゴメス被告(彼の判断は国際法上無効である)に対し、理解者である実業家のデナ・ホリスター女史と修道院の売却で合意した。ホリスター女史はこの修道院をビジネスホテルに改装する意向だった。
裁判で『勝利』したペリー被告に対し、修道女の代理人のジョン・スクローニック弁護士は高等裁判官のステファニー・ボーイック判事に対しローマ教会の意向がない限り判決は無効であると指摘した。それに対し高等裁判所は7月7日に対し修道院の所有権は『大司教にある』とした(国際法上無効である)。
それに対し修道女達は上告した。『ロサンゼルス大司教』代理人のマイケル・ヘリガン『弁護士』は所有権を完全に大司教に取り戻すよう『コメント』した。
「お前は傲慢も甚だしい」と。
人の心は絶対に金では買えない。たとえゴメス被告は騙せても、植草一秀・正統早稲田大学教授や伊波洋一・正統外務大臣には勝てるはずがないし、今はなき宮本政於氏や筑紫哲也氏、ミヒャエル・エンデ氏にも勝てる覚えなどない。それは、彼らが金ではなく揺るぎない信念とぶれない軸を持った人たちだからだ。
ペリー被告は社会運動にも熱心というが、それはただ単に「可哀想だ」という上から目線の傲慢な発想の延長線にすぎない。生活者としての彼らの空気をまるで理解できていないのだ。
そもそも、ペリー被告の珍説は全く通用しないのはどういうことか。
教えて進ぜよう、ペリー被告よ、この言葉に潔く耳を傾け、行動するがいい。
善管注意義務(Duty of Care)という言葉がある。これはアメリカにも似たものがある。すなわち、修道女達は善意を持って修道院を管理してきた。それが一定の期間継続していれば、所有権は自動的に管理してきた人たちに移るのである。
これが国際法上の立派なルールである。すなわち、修道女たちに修道院の所有権があるのは国際法上明確であり、ペリー被告の珍説は完全に破綻した。
さあ、ペリー被告は今すぐ修道院の所有権を潔く放棄し、ゴメス被告らともども修道女たちに手をついて許しを請いなさい。バチカンを騙した罪は重い。
