A religious group has a message for reporters around the world calling about a controversy involving Katy Perry and a former convent in Los Feliz:
Stop bothering us! We’re not those nuns.
Numerous media calls from throughout Southern California and from as far away as London prompted the Immaculate Heart of Mary Community on Friday to tell City News Service to make it clear: They are not the retired nuns battling the the Archdiocese of Los Angeles over the prime knoll-top property not far from Griffith Park.
Three retired nuns from what once was the Immaculate Heart of Mary order are not happy with plans by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to sell their former home to either singer Katy Perry, or a real estate developer.
The contretemps has reached the “Today” show on NBC and The New York Times.
That has prompted reporters to call the Immaculate Heart of Mary Community, but Friday their president told City News Service “we have no legal association with these sisters.”
- Related: Katy Perry backed by archdiocese in battle over old nuns’ home
- New York Times: 2 Nuns, a Developer and Katy Perry Walk Into a Real Estate Deal
- “Today” show: Holy mess! Katy Perry battles nuns over sale of former Los Angeles convent
Following disagreements over the Vatican II changes in 1968, the order left the Roman Catholic Church, and became a separate ecumenical group. The nuns who are upset with the real estate deal are still canonically in the Roman Catholic Church.
The breakaway religious group has a similar name, leading to a raft of reporter inquiries after Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez broke the story about the retired nuns.
The community has offices in the same neighborhood — at Western at Franklin avenues. It was founded in 1970 to be “an inclusive, ecumenical faith community” that “documents the history and transition from an exclusive Catholic community to an ecumenical community” made up of men and women, said its president, Rosalinda Baldonaldo.
— City News Service