Is this true about St. Jerome?

[torch621]

I was recently told by a Protestant (he claimed to be Catholic, but I could instantly tell that he wasn’t) that St. Jerome opposed the use of the title “Father” to refer to priests, in light of Matthew 23:9. Yet, he failed to cite any actual sources that I could see.

Is there any proof or this, or is this just phooey?

Pax Christi.

 

[estesbob]

I was recently told by a Protestant (he claimed to be Catholic, but I could instantly tell that he wasn’t) that St. Jerome opposed the use of the title “Father” to refer to priests, in light of Matthew 23:9. Yet, he failed to cite any actual sources that I could see.

Is there any proof or this, or is this just phooey?

Pax Christi.

I cant find any proof of this but even if he did say it it would be irelevant.

 

[Church_Militant]

I cant find any proof of this but even if he did say it it would be irrelevant.

Quite true. Even a saint and doctor of the church is not infallible. BTW, since that is his assertion, ask him to provide documentation. Most often they cannot and even when they do it proves to have been yanked out of context.

You might take look at this from up in the AAA forum. Why do we call a priest father?

 

[utunumsint]

This is from a letter of Jerome. The introduction provided by the translator is in Italics.

LETTER XVII: TO THE PRESBYTER MARCUS.

In this letter, addressed to one who seems to have had some pre-eminence among the monks of the Chalcidian desert, Jerome complains of the hard treatment meted out to him because of his refusal to take any part in the great theological dispute then raging in Syria. He protests his own orthodoxy, and begs permission to remain where he is until the return of spring, when he will retire from “the inhospitable desert,” Written in A.D. 378 or 379.

1. Reverend and holy father, Jesus is my witness with what groans and tears I have written all this.

Notice how he addresses Marcus.

God bless,
Ut

P.S. Please also note that I have not found a single quote from Jerome in all of his writings on Matthew 23:9.

P.S.S.

Here is another one from Jerome where he describes the virtuous living of the Cenobites, an early name for Egyptian monastics.

Then when the prayers have ended and all have sat down, **one called the father **stands up among them and begins to expound the portion of the day. While he is speaking the silence is profound; no man ventures to look at his neighbor or to clear
his throat. The speaker’s praise is in the weeping of his hearers.(1) Silent tears roll down their cheeks, but not a sob escapes from their lips. Yet when he begins to speak of Christ’s kingdom, and of future bliss, and of the glory which is to come, every one may be noticed saying to himself, with a gentle sigh and uplifted eyes: “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away and be at rest.”(2) After this the meeting breaks up and each company of ten goes with its father to its own table.

P.S.S.S

One last one from Jerome describing his own relation to a woman:

Dear Paula, my agony is as great as yours. Jesus knows it, whom Blaesilla now follows; the holy angels know it, whose company she now enjoys. I was her father in the spirit, her foster-father in affection.

P.S.S.S.S.

I’ve lost track of my Ssss.

Be obedient to your bishop and welcome him as the parent of your soul. Sons love their fathers and slaves fear their masters. “If I be a father,” He says, “where is mine honour? And if I am a master where is my fear?”(2) in your case the bishop combines in himself many titles to your respect. He is at once a monk, a prelate, and an uncle who has before now instructed you in all holy things. This also I say that the bishops should know themselves to be priests not lords. Let them render to the clergy the honour which is their due that the clergy may offer to them the respect which belongs to bishops.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Here is one where he calls the pope his father!!!

And test it should happen that my accuser–encouraged by a volubility which stops at nothing and by an impunity which arrogates to itself an unlimited license–should accuse me as he has already done our father (Pope) Epiphanius; I send this letter to inform you–and through yon others who think me worthy of their regard–of the true order of the facts.

 

[ricko]

Congregationalists. Baptists, Methodists and German Reformed commonly addressed older ministers as “Father” well into the 19th century.

Closely related was the custom of calling missionary pioneers “Father.” In the 19th century, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregationalist, German Reformed, Methodist and Universalist missionaries were given the title throughout the New South and West. And American Lutherans used “Father” for their pioneer pastors, their first missionary to India, and their patriarch, Father Henry Melchior Muhlenberg.

Most significantly, the decline of “Father” in Protestantism coincides with the rise of Irish immigration to the United States in the 1840s. Before that time, Roman Catholic priests in America were usually addressed as “Mister,” for most were secular (nonmonastic) clergy with roots in Europe or England, where Roman Catholic practice restricted “Father” to priests of monastic orders. Secular priests were called “Mister,” “Monsieur,” “Don” or other vernacular equivalents.

religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1916

Most do not know the above history of “Father”. When the Catholics picked up on calling their priests “Father” over a hundred years ago the Protestants dropped the title as they did not want to be identified with the Catholic Church. If it was ok back then, why not now?