Not sure where to post this...really silly question

[pnewton]

Oooh apologies I didn’t realise it was an emotive topic! I was just going on an observation I had made!

What were you before Catholic if you don’t mind me asking?

I did not mean to imply wrong, just that you made me laugh. I was Baptist, born, raised, baptized, educated and even ordained in the Southern Baptist Convention. They are a big group here in the USA.

 

[Phemie]

The term pastor is the correct term employed by the universal Church in canon law, in both Latin and English

Can. 515 — § 1. Paroecia est certa communitas christifidelium in Ecclesia particulari stabiliter constituta, cuius cura pastoralis, sub auctoritate Episcopi dioecesani, committitur parocho, qua proprio eiusdem pastori.

Can. 515 §1. A parish is a certain community of the Christian faithful stably constituted in a particular church, whose pastoral care is entrusted to a pastor.

Pastor is an actual office in church law. There may be one or many priests in any given parish, but omly one would have been installed in the office pastor. “Parish priest” and “pastor” are not synonyms.

Yes, it’s a canonical office but I concur with the previous poster who said it’s not well known outside the US. I actually had someone ask me if he was in a Catholic church when he heard me refer to our priest as our “Pastor.” He’d never heard the term used in a Catholic context before.