The Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, Calif., will be sold to the Roman Catholic Church for $57.5 million, a bankruptcy judge ruled.
The 13-story, Richard Neutra-designed Tower of Hope, which opened in 1968 to house the ministry founded by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, will be consecrated as a Catholic cathedral, the Orange County Diocese said.
The Los Angeles Times said Judge Robert Kwan made the decision Thursday night after considering offers for the campus from both the Catholic Church and Chapman University in Orange, Calif.
The cathedral's creditors committee and the Crystal Cathedral board had initially named Chapman as a preferred buyer.
In the end, the board said it preferred the bid from the Catholic Church.
Schuller himself gave his blessing to turning the modernist building into a Catholic cathedral, the newspaper said.
In a letter to the court, the 85-year-old minister said Catholic leaders assured him they would "take on [Schuller's] calling of proclaiming Christ's message to humanity" and "care for this campus like the treasure it is."
The Crystal Cathedral ministry, now led by Schuller's daughter, Sheila Schuller Coleman, was more than $50 million in debt when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2010.
Schuller founded the ministry in 1955 with $500 from the Reformed Church in America, preaching from the roof of the snack bar at the Orange County Drive-In Theatre, the Crystal Cathedral said on its Web site.
Bishop Tod Brown of the Orange County Diocese said the judge's decision will provide the diocese with a cathedral large enough to meet anticipated needs.
"I was surprised and gratified that so many people told me they were hoping we would be successful; it is clear by all the interest focused on our efforts that many of our laity understand the need for and importance of such a cathedral for Catholics in Orange County," Brown said in a statement.