In the context of what we now know, Jeffrey Steenson retired suddenly late last year. In May of 2012, Our Lady of the Atonement reversed its decision to go into the US-Canadian Ordinariate after the contents of a cell phone call by Steenson were reported to Fr Phillips. That Our Lady of the Atonement has stayed out of the OCSP presumably remains a major issue. Not long after Steenson's sudden retirement, though, and immediately after Bp Lopes's consecration, Msgr Newton, the UK Ordinary, visits San Antonio and celebrates mass.
Msgr Newton has made previous independent visits to groups in the US. Was Bp Lopes consulted on this visit? It's hard to imagine he wasn't. Who paid for this visit? Might the good offices of the Carl and Lois Davis Foundation have been involved?
Reflecting on what I've learned about the Davises -- a visitor has traced several multimillion-dollar donations to the OCSP through the Foundation's public tax filings -- I would assume that the move to put the headquarters of the OCSP at Our Lady of Walsingham and Houston came entirely from the Houston-based Davises, and I might even go farther and surmise that it was a major donation, or its prospect, that simply gave the CDF the go-ahead to make Anglicanorum coetibus a possibility. I wouldn't rule out their involvement in a renewed effort to bring Our Lady of the Atonement into the OCSP.
On the other hand, I did run the Davises' names past a key individual in the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society, but he said he'd never heard of them.
