The Catholics Will Get Their New Big Glass Church

The Crystal Cathedral is changing hands:

A last-minute attempt to block the sale of the Crystal Cathedral failed Monday.

Cathedral insiders asserted that the congregation has a 99-year lease on the landmark Garden Grove church, and they refused to give up the lease to allow a court-ordered sale to go forward.

But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kwan ordered the $57.5 million sale of the church to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange to proceed.

The sale probably will close in the next several days. The diocese has promised that the congregation can continue to use the cathedral for three years before it becomes the diocese's spiritual home.

During an emergency hearing, no one from the congregation was able to prove that the 99-year lease exists.

The dwindling congregation will have to find someplace else to go in three years. My guess is there won't be many of them left by then.

It's quite a facility, but I doubt the Catholics will let us sing there the way the old church did way back in 2002.