Catholic Crystal Cathedral: Great deal or odd choice?

Even by the depressed metrics of Southern California's real estate market, the Catholic Diocese of Orange negotiated a sweet deal when it purchased the iconic Crystal Cathedral, the longtime pulpit of Robert H. Schuller and the backdrop to his popular Hour of Power television broadcasts.

Not only did Catholics get a national landmark designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson, but Bishop Tod D. Brown wasn't even the highest bidder: Schuller and the board of the "possibility thinking" megachurch opted to take Brown's $57.5 million offer over a $59 million pitch from Chapman University because the bishop promised to keep the campus as a place of worship.

"A true miracle!" exulted the diocese's top lawyer, Tim Busch, when the unexpected deal was announced. But divine intervention—or at least "an exceptionally gifted architect," as one anxious churchman put it—will now be needed to transform the television-friendly showcase into a Catholic sanctuary.