The Web References Have Disappeared,

and the Freedom for St Mary timelines don't mention them, but Cardinal Manning of Los Angeles and his successor, Cardinal Mahony, both rejected St Mary of the Angels's petition to become an Anglican Use parish. Based on my memory of the sources, Manning deferred to ecumenical considerations near the end of his tenure about 1985, unwilling to offend Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles Robert Rusack. Mahony then reiterated Manning's refusal about 1986, in a strongly-worded letter questioning whether the parish could live peaceably in the Catholic Church if it didn't get along with the Episcopal Church.

(If anyone has the specific dates and text of these letters, I'll be happy to reproduce them here, though they should really go into the Freedom for St Mary timeline.)

I keep returning to Cardinal Mahony's reasoning, because in light of all subsequent events, he was certainly correct: St Mary of the Angels at some point caught the "continuing Anglican" disease, with a hard core of very angry people. Given that, it wouldn't have been a good fit as a Catholic parish then, and it might well not have been a good fit for the Ordinariate, at least given the makeup of the parish as of early 2012. Now, of course, there's a serious question as to whether it can continue as any sort of parish at all.

Actually, I'm increasingly convinced the parish shouldn't have left The Episcopal Church, given the subsequent history of the "continuing" movement.