This is very good news for the St Alban's group. I recall that Msgr Steenson ran into a complete brick wall trying to line up a similar arrangement for Fr Catania so something has certainly changed. I also recall that back in April 2015 Evan Simington was scheduled to make a visit to the St Alban's group. This didn't come off, but even the tentative plan suggests there might be some Rochester connection which made the community of interest to him. Mr Simington is now a deacon as you probably know and one assumes due for priestly ordination in June 2017.The news item over Fr Catania's sudden move from Rochester to Omaha appeared here in April 2016. The information at the time suggested that the Rochester diocese's opposition to the St Alban's group dated back as far as Msgr Steenson's tenure. What's puzzling is that Bp Matano is generally seen as a conservative or centrist bishop. Anglicanorum coetibus is seen as, at minimum, a pro-liturgy move from a pope who focused on liturgy, although Msgr Steenson, possibly under the influence of Cardinal Wuerl, dissociated the OCSP from Latin mass or traditionalist tendencies.
A reasonable interpretation of events might be that Bp Lopes was able to change Bp Matano's mind and reassure him that the OCSP was compatible with centrist or conservative tendencies in the Church, whatever his earlier impression may have been. A reservation I've expressed here is that despite appearances, Anglicanism is thoroughly Reformed and congregational, and the differences with Catholicism can't be finessed. In that context, Evangelium isn't especially thorough as catechesis, and the "instant ordinations" of favored Anglican clergy in 2012 weren't reassuring. It appears that Dcn Simington will be more fully formed as a Catholic priest, on the other hand. But we may never know more.
