Calling a priest by his first name

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Augustine53

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I am very close friends with a priest at my parish. He is actually my kids’ Godfather. He told me once that I can call him by his first name rather than “Father”. He said that he knows how much I respect the priesthood but that he would be fine with it. This was a while back and I still call him Father. Actually I rarely address him by even Father unless it’s around people or around my kids.

I guess my question is - is it ok to use his first name in more casual and friendship interactions. Thanks
 
If he doesn’t mind and prefers it, of course.
In the context of seeing him before or after Mass or a more formal setting, I would go back to Father out of respect.
But he’s your friend. Cherish that and do as he prefers in the context of your friendship.
God bless.
 
I am also friends with my parish priest though I don’t think I’d ever address him as anything other than Father. Thinking about it though, some of them must miss being addressed simply by their given name which is perhaps why he ever mentioned it to begin with.
 
i think calling him Father is the best because it is out of respect to his person. He is a priest and addressing him with his first name would take away from what he is. I would call him father out for respect due who he is, a priest, a servant of God.🙂
 
Augustine53 said:
I am very close friends with a priest at my parish. He is actually my kids’ Godfather. He told me once that I can call him by his first name rather than “Father”. He said that he knows how much I respect the priesthood but that he would be fine with it. This was a while back and I still call him Father. Actually I rarely address him by even Father unless it’s around people or around my kids.

I guess my question is - is it ok to use his first name in more casual and friendship interactions. Thanks
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If you can keep separate personal encounters from more formal ones, i.e. he is visiting your house, you can drop the formality and call him by his first name but at the exit of the church after mass while he is greeting the congregation then call him “Father Fred” you are perfectly OK.
 
I’ve only ever called one by his given name. We were friends, he spent a lot of time at our house and that was his wish. But I was more formal in public.

Many I’ve called Fr. Given Name, a practice that seemed to start in the 90s.
 
I was very close to one that I knew while he was in Seminary… In stead of “Father” I simply called him “Padre” which was a nickname we gave him while he was in Seminary.
 
Stay with what is comfortable for you. I call many priests Father (First Name).
It goes back to my college days. Of course attending a Benedictine college, it was often difficult to tell the priests from the brothers because of their habits. It became easy to drop the title and simple call the priest or brother by his first name, unless I knew for sure if he was a priest or simply a brother.
 
Personally I would feel uncomfortable just using just their given name. Heck I tend to address priests as Father unless they specifically ask me to use their first name. Even then I am more likely to simply call them Father rather than Father .
 
Usige said:
Personally I would feel uncomfortable just using just their given name. Heck I tend to address priests as Father unless they specifically ask me to use their first name. Even then I am more likely to simply call them Father rather than Father .
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same here
 
I never really understood the practice of calling priests you have only just met “Father Firstname/Nickname”. Do people call me “Mr. Firstname”? No, they don’t. For this reason I always call priests Father Lastname until asked not to.

It always seemed presumptuous to me to call a priest you don’t know well by his first name, in the same way it seems presumptuous to call a layperson you’ve just met by their first name. Unless they introduce themselves to me by their first names, or until they ask me to call them thereby, it’s Ms/Mrs./Mr. Lastname–the same goes for priests. If anything, we should be more formal, not less so, with a man of God. The same goes for Lay Brothers, Sisters, and ministers of other faiths.

Can any priests/religious (male or female) weigh in on this?
 
I know many Sisters who hate the modern business practice of addressing eg prospective customers by their Christian names. Some go as far as using Sister as their first name to avoid this… I would never call any priest anything but Father. After all it takes so many years to become a priest or a religious.
 
I don’t think there’s any problem with calling him by his first name if you are good friends with him and he has requested it. Why not call a priest by his first name if you know him? Being ordained doesn’t make him a God.
 
Mongol said:
I never really understood the practice of calling priests you have only just met “Father Firstname/Nickname”. Do people call me “Mr. Firstname”? No, they don’t. For this reason I always call priests Father Lastname until asked not to.
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A good many introduce themselves as Fr. Given Name or Fr. Nickname. Obviously they wouldn’t do that unless they wanted to be addressed that way.
 
Sunbreak said:
I don’t think there’s any problem with calling him by his first name if you are good friends with him and he has requested it. Why not call a priest by his first name if you know him? Being ordained doesn’t make him a God.
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Just because i call him father doesnt make him a God, but it makes him a servant of God:shrug:
 
I for one enjoy meeting new priests. I can just call them “Father” and not look like a fool who forgot their names! 😉
 
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