Topic:  Why do we call Catholic Priests "Father" even though the Bible says we shouldn't?

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: July 20, 2004

Moderator who originally posted this source: Father Phillip

Question:   Mathew 2:9 Says 'And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.' How do we Catholics explain calling our Priests Father?

Answer: 

Thanks for your question.

You're certainly right that Jesus is recorded in the Gospel as saying that we have One Who is our Father and that One is God. Jesus then goes on to say that we shouldn't call any human being "father".

A small correction: I am fairly sure that you didn't cite quite the right verse of Scripture; it's actually Matthew 23:9 -- not Matthew 2. Anyway...

(If you http://www.catholic.com/library/call_no_man_father.asp you can see how another online Catholic source addresses this issue. Personally, I'm not all that keen on the almost 'belligerent' tone of some of the so-called "apologetics" that address this issue. I think we need always to be respectful of those who disagree with us.)

If you look at the context of Matthew 23, you'll see that Jesus also says we shouldn't call anybody on earth "teacher" because God Alone is our One True Teacher. And yet most people are pretty content calling the head instructor in the third grade their "3rd grade TEACHER." So, why should be get so uptight about the word, "father"?

By focusing on this one word, namely "father," we run the risk of missing Jesus' point. That point, I think, is something like the following:

God is the Source of all compassion, truth, learning, growth, goodness, beauty, and all other virtues.

Yet, God graciously allows human beings to participate in the dissemination of divine grace. St. Augustine calls that participation, co-operation with God; God is the Operator and we are the co-operators. In fact, Catholic theology says that we are co-creators with God. God, of course, is the ultimate, final Creator, but God graciously allows us to share in the business of creating.

In the context of Matthew 23, Jesus is reminding us that God is the Ultimate Teacher. But God allows knowledge to come to students through those women and men who accept the awesome responsibility of sharing in God's Ministry of Teaching. I really don't think that Jesus objected to calling those women and men "teachers." Rather, I think Jesus was just saying something like, "Be careful when you're learning from some human person to remember that that person gets her knowledge and authority by participating in what God is really doing!"

Similarly, Jesus is reminding us in Matthew 23 that all paternity, all care, all discipline, all provision, all love -- those things which human "dads" provide their children -- come from God Who Alone is Father of us all. And likewise, I don't really think that Jesus is saying that we should never utter the word "father" to or about a man. Rather, I think Jesus is trying to remind us that all father-hood, exercised by a man, is, in fact, a way that this particular man has of participating in God's Ultimate Ministry of being Father to all.

When, then, the Catholic Church encourages us to call our priests, "Father," we are trying to live within the 'spirit' of what Jesus says in Matthew 23 rather than getting all hung up on the precise 'letter' of what the Lord says there.

By calling our priests, "Father," we are reminding ourselves AND the priests themselves that whatever goodness we see in our priests comes from their participating in God's Fatherhood. When we say, "Father" to a priest, we are saying to him and to ourselves, "I know that you are but a man; yet I know, too, that by God's infinite goodness, you share in God's Ministry of being a Father to us all, and so I will try to respect you as a person who has in your life accepted God's call."

Hope this helps. Be well!