Who Is Jeffrey Steenson? -- VI

As it has with Mrs Bush, new information has come to light since my last formal estimate of Jeffrey Steenson almost three years ago. I would say, though, that it has gone to flesh out what had only been surmise in developing my theory of the case. (It may also provide indirect insight into issues that may have led to his sudden and premature retirement.) Three disturbing developments marred the inception of the US-Canadian Ordinariate in the first half of 2012:

• Archbishop Chaput's denial of votum to David Moyer in January 2012
• The reversal of Our Lady of the Atonement San Antonio's intent to enter the US-Canadian Ordinariate in May 2012
• The protracted bungling of St Mary of the Angels's entry to the US-Canadian Ordinariate between January and May 2012.

All have been the subject of speculation in the blogosphere. They may have been potatoes hot enough in mid-2012 to have led to the demise of the Anglo-Catholic blog. Certainly there was speculation at the time on Steenson's possible role in Abp Chaput's denial of votum, but nothing concrete has so far come to light, and possibly nothing ever will. The reversal -- and a reversal it was -- of Our Lady of the Atonement's intent to enter the Ordinariate essentially left everyone dumbstruck, and Fr Phillips's public explanation at the time was deliberately vague. The question of St Mary of the Angels has led to extensive examination here, and if my traffic is any indication, the interest continues and is increasing.

A reliable source has provided an account of what appears to have been the real story on Our Lady of the Atonement. As it happens, during the first part of 2012 as Steenson was traveling to receive a parish into the Ordinariate, a group from that parish had picked him up at the airport and was driving him to town. Several people were in the car. Remarkably, Steenson got involved in a cell phone conversation while in the car with several witnesses in earshot and began explaining to whomever was on the other end that he intended to force the retirement of Fr. Phillips after a year and replace him with one of his younger priests, presumably a member of the Nashotah House clique with whom he surrounded himself. One of those in the car conveyed this information to Fr Phillips.

My source continues:

This came shortly after OLA's parish council had voted to enter the Ordinariate even at the price of relinquishing the title to their church and school property to the Archdiocese of San Antonio (with the Ordinariate congregation to have the indefinite use of the property), and just after they learned that this "compromise," which they thought had been a "hard bargain" originating with the San Antonio archdiocesan authorities, had actually been suggested to the archdiocese by Steenson himself. The parish council reversed itself immediately, and decided to remain within the SA archdiocese[.]

What this episode does from my standpoint is simply confirm a pattern I'd already suspected: Steenson didn't want strong, senior clerics in the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, preferring more malleable younger priests who could be motivated by conventional ambition, however unhealthy. He was going to place them in Plumsteads Episcopi like St Mary of the Angels and Our Lady of the Atonement. Whatever may have led to Abp Chaput's decision, it did have the effect of putting David Moyer out of the picture -- and Moyer knew too much about, among others, Andrew Bartus and Stephen Strawn. By all appearances, Steenson was working closely with both.