Fr. Doran recently spent several days in Australia with Fr. Brendan Arthur (who left the SSPX and returned to his local diocese), with Fr. Doran saying something along the lines of "there was no better place to go?"
Did Fr. Arthur manage to convince Fr. Doran of the "need" to return to the Conciliar Church?
This is very hard for me to understand. I have spent less adult years as a Traditional Catholic than Fr. Doran, and yet.... and yet -- he is willing to give it all up for a fake life as a Lebanese priest with a beard in the Conciliarized Maronite rite?
As much as Fr. Doran admires the East, it isn't him. It's not his true self. It reminds me of a teenager trying to "find himself". But in a man's late 50's, that's kind of sad. It's more like a mid life crisis!
At first I'm sure everyone is intrigued by this Irish-American with a beard who is soft spoken, well formed and educated, and who knows so much about their culture. But how can he truly make it real? Can he really talk to the children in his flock about how his grandmother used to make (insert Lebanese food here)? And what other Lebanese culture has he experienced personally? For that matter, what Maronite ANYTHING has he experienced personally, before the past few months, I mean? Won't they eventually tire of the novelty? Won't he?
I used to be fascinated by Japan, its culture, its Anime, the language, and I self-studied Japanese for many years. When I was 19 - 23. But I'm not even part Japanese, so it was all just a "grass is greener on the other side" fascination with the exotic and the different. Such a fascination must needs be short-lived. Eventually you learn that "they have problems too" plus you get USED TO the exotic elements, and they become mundane and boring.
And I should point out, that even after I entered the Seminary I continued to maintain/study the Japanese language, and I certainly entertained the possibility that I'd be posted in Asia/Japan (because, after all, it isn't every SSPX priest that knows Japanese!) So I can relate somewhat.
But this isn't even a "Traditional Catholic" Maronite group -- this is mainstream Conciliar Novus Ordo here.
I should also point out: Fr. Doran, in one of his many "off topic tangents" in Philosophy class, gave his opinion that when the Crisis in the Church is sorted out, the Church won't be bringing everyone to use the Tridentine Mass (the Mass as canonized in the Council of Trent), or even the 1962 Mass. It will be some 1962/Novus Ordo hybrid, since A) there is nothing perfect or final about the Tridentine Mass, and B) the Novus Ordo Missae has been used for too long
I remember he was applying his rational brain to the Mass, rather than revering Tradition. For example, he criticized the "Ite Missa Est" because the Mass wasn't actually over after that point. How about some reverence for the Tridentine Mass, which organically grew as the fruit of Tradition over many CENTURIES?
Maybe that phrase is meant as "Go and change the world as saints of God, for you have received great graces at yet another Mass, and you have received of the Fount of Grace, Holiness Itself, so you should go out like lions, terrible to the devil, and help win souls for Christ."
As opposed to, "Y'all get out of here. The mass is over. It's closing time, bub!"
Now that he's made this CRAZY move (to return to the Conciliar Church -- his switching Rites is not so much of a problem), I think I need to do a mental purge of various things he taught me in the Seminary...