Addressing a priest with a PhD

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Depends.

Academic context . . . Dr. in a secular setting unless he specifies otherwise. . . Father in a seminary/church university setting.
Any other context . . . Father
 
I would call him Father. This reminds me of my godfather. I get so used to call him godfather, and now he is a priest, and sometimes I forgot and called him ‘godfather’.
 
My thinking is that PhD’s are plentiful, commonplace (not quite a dime a dozen) and not an especially rare achievement in this day of overpopulated graduate schools. To be a priest, however, is quite another matter. In comparison to PhDs, they are far less plentiful. I am reminded of a saint (Francis, I think) who when asked if he were to meet on the street an archangel or a priest, whom would he greet first. He answered the priest because he had the greater dignity.
 
A regular angel, perhaps, but an arch angel. I don’t know, they are cannonized or is there a different word for the process of angels being considered saints? I think one would be better off greeting the arch angel first.

Back on topic, a secular person would call the priest doctor. A Catholic would call the priest father under all circumstances unless otherwise asked of him or her. I would think of it similar to back in high school where the football coaches also taught classes. I played football so I always called my coaches coach even in class. The other students who were not on the team called the coach mister.
 
Many of our priests have doctorates…philosophy, theology,…canon law…etc. Bishops have D.D., Doctor of Divinity, after their names.
I have asked priests, monsignors and even a bishop how they want to be addressed. All, including the bishop, expressed a preference for Father. The bishop smiled and said some people call him “Father Bishop”.
The only time I ever heard of a priest using Doctor was monk many years ago who walked out and founded his own church, bu that’s a different topic.
 
‘Your Grand Supreme Poohbah-ness’ :bowdown2:

or else ‘Your well-and-truly-overqualified-ship’ 😃
 
When I was in undergrad, we all called the anatomy prof “Fr. [last name]”. It was what he chose to be called (even though he was a fully tenured PhD prof) and everyone, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, was fine with that.
 
I would address the priest always as father. His ordination is of much greater significance than any academic achievement.
 
I remember reading somewhere that the official designation is “Doctor Father” however when I wrote to a priest to ask about this, he did not reply.

He signs his other notes to me with his first name only, and I normally address him as “Father.”
 
People with a doctor degree go for a dime/dozen. You just need to pass some tests given to you by your future peers. The One that tests the future priests has never been, is not, and will never be anyone’s peer.

I recently met a seminarian from Korea (preparing to become a diocesan priest in Austin, TX), and he told me the following story that happened to him.

He spent some pastoral time in a Korean hospital as an intern chaplain. One day the head surgeon was doing is daily round with all the medical interns following him with the outmost respect (we are talking Korea here, not the USA). When the head surgeon walked by him, he stopped and with the outmost respect he saluted the young seminarian, briefly chatted with him and left. Later all the medical interns looked for the young seminarian and asked him who he was, because nobody knew of him and they thought that he must have been some important genius if the head surgeon treated him with such respect. He told them that he was just an intern chaplain, and the medical students were puzzled that such a big M.D. would treat him with respect. Later came out that the surgeon was Catholic and said that he only saves lives while the young man will save souls.

Just use Father and forget about the Dr.
 
I met a priest in a campus ministry setting who told how he was given a new name by the students.

One had said that “Father” felt too formal, and asked if he would be called by his first name, to which the priest said no. So someone suggested “Padre”, which was acceptable I guess.

It later became shortened to just “Dre”.

Sometime later, after having caught on with the students, another saw where the priest had earned a doctorate. “So you really are a Dr.”

He then answered to “Dr. Dre”, and only finally figured it out when he saw an MTV special where the real Dr. Dre was performing!
 
About a dozen years ago, one of our priests received his Ph.D.; and he SPECIFICALLY said that he should continued to be addressed as “Father” and NOT as “Doctor”.
 
Are deacons addressed as “Rev.”? Ours go by “Mr.”

One of our deacons is a medical doctor and he is addressed as “Dr.”
 
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