Do you ever feel weird calling a very young priest, "Father"?

[adamhovey1988]

A couple weeks ago we had a very young, newly-ordained priest help out during Mass. Nobody mentioned how old he was but he looked to be about 15. After Mass he was standing by the doors with our priest, shaking hands with people as they left. I noticed that people were calling our priest, “Father,” but almost nobody addressed the young priest as, “Father.” I didn’t think much of it at the time but when I was talking to my wife about it later we both admitted that it felt a little strange referring to someone who looks younger than our son by that title. Has anyone else felt the same way?

Not really. One of my favourite priests in terms of preaching (no offense to any others), is about 3 or 4 years older than me.

 

[Joe_5859]

I guess I’ll go against the grain and say that I know what Gordon is talking about. I have never feel so “weird” about it that I wouldn’t call a priest “Father”, but it does sometimes lead me to think “This is kind of weird”. It’s probably just a symptom of me being in my 30’s and suddenly realizing that I’m no longer the youngest adult on the planet.

I have had lots of friends (some older, some younger) who have gone on to become priests. Then there are other guys who I’ve met as seminarians and known for years in that context. Just this past year, one of them got ordained and I remember him being an altar server back when he was still in high school. It doesn’t seem that long ago to me either. That one felt especially strange. But I’ll adjust.