Questions and Answers about Catholic Church Why do Catholics call their priests “Father?” I read in the bible that Jesus says call no man father. But look at these Catholics. They're calling their priest father. You even call me Father Manning. What's going on? Why don't we say Reverend Father Manning, or Pastor Michael Manning. And one of the problems that arises with that statement of calling me Father is…. listen to this taken from the twenty third chapter of Matthew: “But you must not be called Rabbi, for you have one Rabbi, and you are all brothers. Do not call any man on earth Father, for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor must you, must you be called Teacher. You have one Teacher, the Messiah. The greatest among you must be your servant, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. And whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Well let's go back and see what they say here now. It says “But do not call any man on earth Father, for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. My, my. Maybe, maybe there's something wrong with that, of calling me Father.” Well let me say to you my own explanation as to why I think it's important that we do call me Father. First of all, I think that as Jesus speaks these words, we must take it in context. Remember he said, “Call no man Rabbi, call no man teacher”, along with calling “no man Father”. What is he concerned about? And then as he ends, he talks about the importance of being a leader who's continually serving. The use of titles, Rabbi, Father, Teacher, is wrong if somehow those titles raise you up above other people, and somehow make you think that you are better than anyone else. The real call is that there is only one Rabbi, there is only one Father, there is only one Teacher. But that doesn't mean then that we can't call a person a Rabbi, we can't call the father of children a father, nor do we need to be nervous about calling a person who is the teacher in a school a teacher, you know? Because that's just a designation of who they are. But as soon as those people start taking on a position of somehow becoming more important than they should, and not really being the servants that Jesus called for from the leaders of his world, that's where the problem arises. So it's not the, the calling of a person Rabbi, or the calling of the person Father, or calling the person a Teacher, which are the three things he's concerned with. He's concerned with those who use titles to make themselves better than other people. Now, the term “Father” for me is also a challenge that every time you call me Father, again I must make sure that I'm never trying to say that I'm better than anyone else, but that I, who have chosen a life which is following the words of Jesus of, of celibacy, of not being married. And one of the dangers of not being married is that it can be a free ride if you will, from the responsibility of what it means to be a father. And yet no person should ever do that, that I now as a celibate, not having my own natural children, am now called to have children in my family of the parish, children who are part of the family here of the television ministry that we're working with. And every time you call me Father, you demand of me that responsibility, that I give of myself just like a good father does when he's caring for his child, when he's caring for his wife. That I am continually called to be a person, giving of my time, giving of my talents, giving of my love to the people that I'm with. Think about that, would you? So that's my response to why you call me Father. And again, every time you do that, oh you make me responsible for making sure that I take on the responsibility of caring for people as a father. And I am called to make sure, as Jesus says, that in my role of leadership, as a Father, as a celibate, that I am never dominating, I am never Lording it over another person. Amen. I hope that kind of comes to a bit of understanding. < Return to Questions and Answers about Catholic Church Call Toll Free: 1-888-496-7363