Why put “Father” on a priest when Jesus forbade it?

🔥The question: “Jesus said, ‘Call no one on earth your father,’ so isn't a priest breaking Scripture?”

🛡️The Church's answer: In the same passage Jesus also said to call no one ‘teacher.’ Yet Scripture calls a biological father a father, and Paul, who brought them the Gospel, compares himself to a father in faith. So Jesus' words read less as an order banning every family or teaching title from being spoken and more as a warning: leaders must not take God's place or lord it over others for the honor of it. ‘Father’ is family language for a spiritual service — caring for a community with the word and the sacraments — and it means the duty to serve first, not a higher rank.

🧐If they press further: “And when someone acts authoritarian because of that title?” — That criticism deserves to be heard. The title must never become a tool for privilege or for forcing silence, and Jesus' words demand greater humility and accountability from clergy.

✨In one sentence: “Jesus forbade taking God's place and wanting to be exalted, not the word itself. ‘Father’ means the duty of spiritual care, not domination.”