Hollister called the allegation “ridiculous” and defended the sisters’ mental fitness. “They’re not dumb at all,” she said Wednesday. “No one is saying Warren Buffett is 84 years old and can’t run his own company.”
Sister Jean-Marie Dunne doesn’t like Gomez’s attitude either. The 88-year-old has said she doesn’t want any part of the public confrontation, according to court documents, but an e-mail she sent him became part of the record. “OLD AGE does not necessarily = SENILITY,” she wrote.
The nuns moved out of the villa in 2011. Hollister, who lives in another former convent nearby, said she’s done some work, restoring the pool and removing an altar from the main room, which has a 30-foot ceiling and hand-carved fireplace.
Canonical Vows
According to Sisters Rita and Catherine Rose, Gomez told them last year that he wanted to sell to “someone named Katherine Hudson,” who they later learned was Katy Perry.
They weren’t happy with the idea that they wouldn’t be in charge of proceeds of a sale, nor with the prospect of the villa being occupied by someone who favors bustiers and was described as a “full-on male fantasy” in GQ magazine.
“In selling to Katy Perry, we feel we are being forced to violate our canonical vows to the Catholic Church,” Sister Catherine Rose wrote in a June 13 e-mail.
The sisters met Perry in May, at Gomez’s behest. The singer, the daughter of pastors who has a “Jesus” tattoo on her wrist, sang “Oh Happy Day” for them, according to the Los Angeles Times, but failed to impress.