Televangelist Robert Schuller Reportedly In Critical Condition

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Southland televangelist Robert Schuller was in critical condition and may not make it through the week, family members said Wednesday.

The 88-year-old founder of the Crystal Cathedral Ministries is currently in a Southland nursing home as his condition continues to deteriorate following an exploratory procedure in January to examine his digestive tract, daughter-in-law Donna Schuller told the Orange County Register.

Schuller, who was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2013, has not been undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatments since his wife, Arvella Schuller, died in Feb. 2014, according to The Register.

While Schuller is not life support and continues to breathe on his own, he is extremely weak because has not
eaten for "several days" and is asleep most of the time, Donna Schuller told The Register.

"He doesn't seem to be in pain," she said. "He's had a wonderful life and he'll pass gracefully."

Schuller started the Garden Grove Community Church in 1955 and moved it to the Garden Grove campus in 1961 as the ministry grew.

The couple resigned from the board of Crystal Cathedral in March 2012 after the ministry filed for bankruptcy, citing debts of $43 million. Their resignations from the board came shortly after the firings of their daughter Gretchen Penner, and her husband, Jim Penner, as producers of the "Hour of Power," and son-in-law Jim Coleman as director of creative services.

In February 2012, the church's property was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange for $57.5 million. After making $29 million in renovations, the church was renamed Christ Cathedral in June 2012.