Rev. Fr. James H. Doran
Father Doran was born in Detroit, Michigan and was ordained to the priesthood in June of 1988 after completing
theological studies at St. Pius X International Seminary in Ecône, Valais, Switzerland. He was assistant headmaster and prefect of discipline for two years at St. Mary’s Academy in St. Mary’s, Kansas.
He was editor of the Society of St. Pius X’s magazine, the Angelus, and provided general direction of the Society’s publishing house. During this time he oversaw the relocation of the publishing offices from Houston, Texas to Kansas City, Missouri.
Father Doran was the founding prior and principal of St. Vincent’s Priory and Academy in Kansas City, Missouri. He oversaw the construction of the priory as well as renovations to the school building. Father was responsible for the academic and disciplinary life at the Academy as well as the general formation of the faculty.
He was prior and headmaster of the Immaculate Conception Priory and Boys’ Academy in Post Falls, Idaho. There he worked in the apostolate with four other confrères, a convent of Carmelite nuns, and a community of Dominican teaching sisters.
For almost ten years, Father Doran was a professor and vice-rector at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, Minnesota. During which time he taught Latin, Canon Law, Aristotelian First Philosophy, and Fundamental Theology.
The next six years he was prior at St. Francis de Sales Priory in Onex, Geneva, Switzerland. There, he was the director of a parish, religious community and a private K-5 elementary school, a community of three priests and five religious sisters.
He was prior, for a year, at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and St. Andrew’s Priory in Hampton, Victoria, Australia. Following a ten month sabbatical, he was assigned as the founding prior at St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church in Farmingville, New York on Long Island.
For twenty-eight years, Father Doran served as a priest in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. Having always been drawn to the Eastern Catholic traditions, cherishing a friendship with the Maronite Archbishop of Damascus, Syria, and following a period of discernment, he found that God was calling him to continue serving, as a priest, in the Antiochene Syro-Maronite Rite, of the Catholic Church. Father has commented on his journey to the Maronite Church and that, too, can be found on this website.
In May of 2017, Bishop Gregory Mansour, of the Eparchy of Saint Maron, Brooklyn New York, appointed Father Doran as the of Pastor at Saint Joseph’s Maronite Catholic Church in Waterville, Maine.
In 2019, Fr. Doran was appointed by the Holy See to Knighthood in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. The investiture was done by H. Em. Sean Cardinal O'Malley in Boston on November 1st and 2nd 2019
