GARDEN GROVE, CA — The Crystal Cathedral, once a symbol of America’s evangelical movement where thousands of congregants attended services each Sunday, may be about to make a major religious conversion: The Roman Catholic Church is looking to buy the headquarters of the bankrupt megachurch.
The Diocese of Orange has offered $50 million to buy Crystal Cathedral’s 40-acre campus and convert the landmark church into a Catholic cathedral, part of a plan to allow Crystal Cathedral Ministries, which operates the church, to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings.
The diocese’s offer is one of several plans to be considered by the Crystal Cathedral Ministries board when it meets Thursday, before another hearing in bankruptcy court on Monday. Other plans would convert parts of the campus into a university health sciences center or apartments.
The diocese would renovate the interior to create an altar and other elements of a Catholic cathedral, but would leave the glass-paned exterior of the church, designed by Philip Johnson, largely unaltered.
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