Ministry Rescinds Land Deal

A ministry that wants to build a 175-acre retreat in south Orange County is backing out of a deal to sell a piece of the property to a private Christian high school because all religious instruction would be taught by Catholics.

“The only reason the ministries had any interest in this at all was because this was to be a Christian school that would teach religion,” said Tom Pistone, a spokesman for Rancho Capistrano Ministries.

Boosters at Junipero Serra High School, who said they have raised $10 million for the school and worked feverishly to be ready to enroll students by fall 2002, were caught off guard by the announcement. “They’ve known about our agreement with the diocese for months,” said Tim Busch, chairman of the high school’s board of directors.

The ministry, which is run by the son of the Rev. Robert Schuller, intends to build a Christian center on the grassy acreage, which was donated to Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral by Newport Beach businessman John Crean two decades ago.

Rancho Capistrano Ministries said Junipero Serra High’s relationship with the Catholic Diocese of Orange is incompatible with earlier agreements to include the ministry in religious instruction. The high school would have excluded non-Catholic instructors from teaching religion at the San Juan Capistrano campus, a ministry spokesman said.