Crystal Cathedral will be sold to Catholic Diocese
A slide presentation is shown during the funeral for 5 year old Samantha Runnion at the Crystal Cathedral on July 24, 2002 in Garden Grove, California
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County has won the right to buy the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.
They plan to renovate the glass structure to make it suitable for Catholic services, but they will not change the exterior, the Orange County Register reported.
They will purchase the building for $57.5 million, a federal bank bankruptcy judge ruled last night.
The Crystal Cathedral is a 31 year old glass structure that was designed by Philip Johnson and created by Robert Schuller, who conducted services there.
Schuller television program, Hour of Power, was broadcast from the cathedral worldwide.
After more than four years of family and financial problems, the cathedral fell into bankruptcy. The cathedral is currently led by Sheila Schuller Coleman, Schuller's daughter.
Chapman University had also attempted to buy the 40 acre facility, but the 85-year-old Schuller could not abide the thought that the building would be used for non religious purposes, USA Today reported.
The ruling was a blow to Chapman University, which had fought bitterly down to the final moments of the bankruptcy case for the right to buy the property as a satellite campus.