Looking back, I'm struck by the complete lack of realistic planning. The Ordinariate wouldn't officially start until January 1, 2012, and Msgr Steenson hadn't been officially designated as Ordinary. As a result, the parish's contact with Catholic authorities was Msgr William Stetson, who was reduced to making coy statements like, "I don't know who the Ordinary will be, but I know his calendar is open for January 8." I should have been more skeptical, but after all, this was the Catholic Church. They knew what they were doing, didn't they?
A second issue was that nobody in charge seemed to be aware of the whole situation, in particular that the ACA was, during this time, actively working to seize the parish. The dissidents had scheduled a meeting with Stephen Strawn for the following week, which was averted only when David Moyer, still theoretically Bishop of the Patrimony, shooed him away. In response, the ACA House of Bishops voted to dissolve the Patrimony. Hindsight says they did this for the sole reason of making it easier to seize St Mary's. It doesn't appear that either Msgr Stetson or Msgr Steenson had a clue about what was going on.
David Moyer, of course, did. In fact, he was probably the only functioning adult involved in the process at that point; Steenson's fecklessness was already making itself plain. A couple of weeks after the ACA bishops dissolved the Patrimony, Archbishop of Philadelphia Chaput denied Moyer his votum, blocking his entry to the Ordinariate as a priest. When this happened, there was wide speculation on whether Jeffrey Steenson was involved in the move.
Whatever the specifics may have been, it's worth noting that Moyer was the only other former Anglican bishop who would have been in the running for Ordinary besides Steenson, and speculation in the runup certainly mentioned Moyer as a candidate. Edging Moyer out was the best possible move both for Steenson and the ACA. Steenson, advised by an apparently incompetent chancellor, dithered, requesting another vote from the parish (which had already voted on the topic twice). This uncertainty and lack of leadership simply encouraged the ACA and the parish dissidents to keep going.
My own view is that the one individual who had the best knowledge of all the players, both in the ACA and the St Mary's parish, was David Moyer. With him out of the picture, it appears that the most knowledgeable figure was Andrew Bartus, then still St Mary's curate, who met frequently with the parish dissidents and had back-channel contacts to the Houston in-group. His objective appears to have been to knock Fr Kelley out of the running via back-channel character assassination and become pastor of the St Mary's parish when it entered the Ordinariate. He bungled this job, of course.
I've heard at third hand that, while still Ordinary, Msgr Steenson complained to colleagues at bishops' conferences that he was hobbled by incompetent subordinates. My reaction is that he chose to surround himself with the subordinates he had, and if I were handicapping corporate politics the same way, I would have said David Moyer, qualified to serve as Ordinary with episcopal experience and displaying competence and effective leadership, was too much of a threat to Steenson to have him around. I certainly agree with observers who feel that a major task for Bp-Elect Lopes will be to sift through the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth-Nashotah House old boy network he's inherited.
For the Ordinariate to leave behind the air of disappointment that's surrounded it from the start and regain the promise that observers saw in 2011, it will need to reexamine the mistakes that were made in early 2012 and make it a priority to remedy the St Mary of the Angels debacle. Please continue to pray for Fr Kelley, the vestry, and the parish.
