Mrs. Don-o has provided a broader view of the larger picture in her post above. In fact, Dreher did not leave because of a specific parish. He had also been covering a scandal in the Albany Diocese that involved the sudden death of a devout priest. It was an accrual of many factors that prompted his decision.
While working for the NY Post, Dreher and his wife resided in Brooklyn where they attended Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral. Following 9-11, Dreher wrote:
"Monsignor Ignace Sadek, the elderly pastor of the Maronite cathedral near the Brooklyn waterfront, went to the promenade park overlooking lower Manhattan and prayed for absolution for the dying as the towers burned. When the first building crumbled, and the terrible cloud of smoke, debris, and incinerated human remains began its grim march across the harbor, Monsignor Sadek remained at his post praying. The falling ash turned him into a ghost. Still, he stayed as long as he could. This is a man who came through the civil war in Lebanon, and he doesnt run."People could see I was a priest," he told me later (he is my pastor). "They ran to me and knelt at my feet, and begged for absolution." Think of that: The people of this proud, defiantly secular city, driven to their knees in prayer, begging for mercy in a hot, gray fog. That is what purgatory must be like."
Rod's attendance at the Maronite Divine Liturgies opened a window on the beauty of the East. Msgr. Sadek just passed away last month..
I didn’t know that, NYer. Impressive.
Thank you for sharing this beautifully inspiring story.