“Jesus forbade calling anyone ‘father’ — so why do you call priests Father?”

🔥The question: “He said, ‘Call no one on earth your father.’ Isn't the very title ‘Father’ a violation of Scripture?”

🛡️The Church's answer: In the same passage Jesus also said to call no one ‘teacher.’ Yet Scripture calls a man's own father his father, and Paul says he became a spiritual father to the people he evangelized. So the command reads less like a ban on ever uttering a family or teaching title than like a warning that leaders must not seize the place of God, who alone is the master of truth and life, and lord it over people. ‘Father’ is family language for the spiritual care of a community; it is not a medal demanding deference but a responsibility to serve more humbly.

🧐If they press further: “If the title feeds authoritarianism, can we drop it?” — Different cultures and situations can use other respectful forms of address, and the health of the relationship matters more than the word. Using a title to force obedience or intimacy is exactly the behavior Jesus warned against.

✨In one sentence: “Calling a priest Father doesn't mean he takes God's place — it means responsibility for spiritual care, and it must never become a tool of authoritarianism.”