Crystal Cathedral Bought By Catholic Diocese

[FSTargetDrone]

I think it would make a good greenhouse:

Nov 18, 2011

Catholic diocese buys Crystal Cathedral for $57M

The Roman Catholic diocese that won the right to buy the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., plans to renovate the shimmering glass structure to make it suitable for Catholic services but won't change the exterior, The Orange County Register reports.

A federal bank bankruptcy judge ruled late Thursday that the Orange diocese can buy the building for $57.5 million.

The 31-year-old glass structure, designed by architect Philip Johnson, was created by church founder Robert Schuller, who conducted services and broadcast his worldwide Hour of Power television program from there.

The cathedral fell into bankruptcy after more than four years of family and financial turmoil. The ministry is led by Schuller's daughter Sheila Schuller Coleman.

Schuller, who started his ministry in 1955 in an Orange drive-in theater, did not attend the bankruptcy hearing, but as a member of the church board, he voted in favor of selling it to the diocese.

In a letter to the court, Schuller, 85, said he could not abide the thought that Chapman University, which had tried to buy the 40-acre facility, might someday use the cathedral for non-religious purposes, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The Times reports that Coleman, Schuller's daughter, said in a statement that the decision to select the Catholic Church "breaks her heart." She said she hopes "there is still plenty of time for God to do His miracle."

Under the terms of the sale, the Crystal Cathedral ministry will be allowed to lease back the core building and church for three years when it will relocate, probably to a nearby Catholic church.

"The cathedral's administration and the board have really stripped us of our ministry," said congregant Bob Canfield, the Register reports. "In the end, it was all about the money. The congregants have lost their ministry."

[LaCroix]

Mad evangelical group with huge cathedral fails, cathedral gets taken over by the RCC. Oh the sweet irony...

[Broomstick]

Dunno about "irony", but the RCC has a long history of taking over the sites of competing cults.

[LaCroix]

Dunno about "irony", but the RCC has a long history of taking over the sites of competing cults.

Sorry... Context: In Vienna, the RCC is selling off churches with little attendance to other denominations...

[Alerik the Fortunate]

While the decline in religiosity as a proportion of the population continues as a general trend in America as in Europe, there are so many immigrants from varying shades of Christian backgrounds that the major denominations constantly poach from each other to bring immigrants into their particular community. Besides, many, possibly most immigrants are from Catholic background countries, especially in Latin America, so there's a ready made stream of new members. For all their systemic abuses, the Catholic church at least knows how to manage their assets, which is why they were able to buy property from a conspicuous consumption megachurch that obviously didn't know how to live within its means.

[eion]

at least the name of the building will be accurate now.

[Ryan Thunder]

Meh. I always thought it was ugly as sin anyway.

[Broomstick]

at least the name of the building will be accurate now.

Only if the RCC installs a bishop.

[FSTargetDrone]

A bit more about Schuller and his money woes as we discussed here a few years ago.

Anyway, I wonder what changes will be made inside the building other than the stuff necessary for the RCC. Certainly an altar with a crucifix behind it will be installed. It will need a tabernacle and such.

[eion]

at least the name of the building will be accurate now.

Only if the RCC installs a bishop.

Like they're going to pass up an opportunity like that.

[Siege]

This letter (PDF) by Bishop Brown of the local diocese certainly implies that the RCC intends to use move the bishop's seat to it in the future. Certainly it's bigger than the current Holy Family Cathedral, which from what I can find about it seems to be fairly small-ish insofar as cathedrals go (it dates to the fifties).

[CJvR]

Oh that gives me a Simpsons flashback...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daifXC1HaXg

[ComradeClaus]

Oh that gives me a Simpsons flashback...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daifXC1HaXg

Ahhh, the lovely parquet floor!

Eeeek the noise! SQUEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!!!!!!

I'm guessing from your Homer avatar, you're a simpsons fan, same here!