Priest wants to be called by his first name

[lilypadrees]

Because we had priests who were siblings in our parish, we always referred to them as Fr Philip (always obeyed the rules) and Fr Joe Pat (the naughty Fr, his escapades are well known online).

 

[MagdalenaRita]

Our newest generation seems bent on changing our traditions

In all fairness, I am not sure if it is all the new generation, though, yes, definitely some. Maybe mostly because it is what they are being taught. IMHO some of this “casualness” is an overflow from the late 60’s and 70’s.

Many of the younger Catholics coming up today are trying to bring back lost traditions and are finding it an uphill battle.

 

[JMMJ]

That must have just been something unique about the parish your mother grew up in. I, too am in my late 50’s, listened to my mother talk a lot about her parish she grew up in, and the priests that were there and never once did she ever just call him Joe or Bob. When she spoke of the priests of her parish, she always prefaced them with “Father”.

I think geographical locations,and local customs,play a big part in these things!

 

[Phemie]

I think you’re incorrect, because truthfully, as a kid I wouldn’t have known my priest’s given name in the first place. Probably by the time I was 12, I might have seen it printed somewhere, and knew it. Maybe it was just different where I grew up (a city of 7 million).

Why must everyone adapt because of the preferences of one radical? It would seem the other way around.

I just had a flashback to my childhood when our parish priest was a frequent presence at our house and dropping by the rectory was not unusual.

Dad had been his altar server from the age of 12 and if Dad had another best friend before this priest died in 1963 I don’t know who it would have been. Yet not once was this priest ever called anything but Père Sivret (his given name was Louis) by anyone. This priest had been the officiant at Mom & Dad’s wedding and had baptized all three of us.

His housekeeper was also a friend. Her name was Louise but she was Tante (Auntie) Lou to us and I never heard my parents call her anything else unless they were referring to her in the third person in which case it was Miss Poirier.

Never would have dreamed of calling any of his successors anything by Fr. Last name. Even today the priests in that parish go by Fr. Last name.

 

[JMMJ]

Not a problem for me.

 

[meltzerboy2]

Personally I would have a hard time doing it. Calling a priest by their first name alone without the title Father would be like calling an aunt or uncle by their first name, or a parent. It just sounds weird as well as disrespectful. I recall once teaching at a Quaker school and everyone called everyone by their first name, including students speaking to their teachers. It seemed strange at first but then I got used to it…well, almost. However, that protocol was part of Quaker tradition, so it is different from the present situation.

 

[MagdalenaRita]

I think geographical locations,and local customs,play a big part in these things!

Perhaps different countries, but if you are in your 50’s and talking about our parents time and talking about America, you’ll have to remember we are talking about the Father O’Malley, Father Flanagan and Father Logan era, so it was pretty much "Father _____last name.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Not a problem for me what? Did you forget something?

 

[JMMJ]

Not a problem for me to address you as “Your Grace”.

 

[bassmansteiny]

I wonder how much this still holds true with the youth today. Hope it does but with the way society is today I am doubtful.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Do you mean to say “your grace, it is not a problem for me to address you as your grace”?

 

[JMMJ]

Exactly! Just like that!

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Exactly just like that what!?

Lol

 

[dochawk]

There was a national news story perhaps a year ago about a kid getting suspended for “yes ma’am” after moving from the south to (I think) New England.

She is from a Central American country and has explained that in her culture, it’s terribly impolite to call “the big boss” by his first name.

I suppose that my basic personality comes across as professorial, even though I’m out of academia. (I’m the only one that an executive placement firm ever allowed to keep his beard, simply because it fit me so well and “professorially”).

As a consequence, I’ve tended to get called “doc” in various environments, never ate my own instigation. Even my priest dresses me as such at Communion ().

So there was an interesting exchange I observed several years ago at work, where one of the assistants was asked why she kept calling me “Mr. Hawkins.” She was doing that out of respect, where they thought that not using “doc” or “Dr.” was not being respectful.

As far a my preferences, just don’t call me late to dinner . . . :crazy_face:

And as a practical matter, I don’t mind that physicians have usurped the term “Doctor”, even though they only have one of the two key components that the word has meant for millennial. That they were able to drastically improve the quality of health care seems a worthwhile tradeoff–although I laugh myself silly at the “I’m a real doctor,” as almost all of them are not, not having contributed to their field of knowledge, but merely acquired it . . . .

hawk, a real doctor

historical footnote: the modern American M.D. was specifically designed for the purpose of borrowing the respect of the doctors of the university. There was an MD before this, but it wasn’t the norm for medical practitioners, and was more comparable toe a Ph.D. or Doctor of Divinity (the real kind, not the Bible college stuff).

 

[Londoner]

historical footnote: the modern American M.D. was specifically designed for the purpose of borrowing the respect of the doctors of the university. There was an MD before this, but it wasn’t the norm for medical practitioners, and was more comparable toe a Ph.D. or Doctor of Divinity (the real kind, not the Bible college stuff).

As you probably know, medical doctors in the UK, Ireland, and much of the Commonwealth hold only the bachelor’s degree of Bachelor of Medicine, which is usually, although not always, held conjointly with the degree of Bachelor of Surgery and, especially on the island of Ireland, with the degree of Bachelor of the Art of Obstetrics.

The degree of DM (Oxford) or MD (Cambridge and elsewhere) is still awarded as a research degree. Formerly, the DM/MD degree was a “higher” doctorate comparable to the doctorates in Divinity, Civil Law (Oxford), Laws (Cambridge and elsewhere), Letters or Literature, Science, and Music, but it now ranks as a basic research doctorate equivalent to a PhD, EngD, EdD, etc. (confusingly, the Royal College of Music awards a DMus degree as its equivalent of a PhD). Medical researchers wishing to receive a higher doctorate now usually apply for the degree of DSc/ScD.

In the UK the DD degree is awarded exclusively as a higher doctorate on the basis of the candidate’s entire body of scholarly work or as an honorary doctorate (although until quite recently the requirements for a DD were rather loosely interpreted and the degree was often awarded to an Anglican cleric on the basis of somewhat meagre scholarly output, such as a volume of sermons). Historically, a doctor of divinity who was also a professor was addressed as Dr rather than Professor as the doctorate was considered to rank above a professorship. Now that almost all academics are doctors it no longer makes sense to seemingly demote a theology professor by calling him Dr when he gains a DD degree.

 

[jrgmercado]

I was in JROTC in high school and I still remember my army instructor telling us that we can address him by his first name “CSM”. My wife’s cousin is a priest and in most settling I refer to him as “Fr. Bill” but if he is out of uniform, I do try to call him “Bill”. Same with another priest friend but unfortunately “Fr” to me is part of their first name so it’s hard to get away from it.
I’ve lived in the south for the majority of my life so “Miss”, “Ma’am” and “Sir” come naturally to me. I had a friend’s mother end up working for me and I always referred to her as “Miss Jones”. I did it so often that everyone started calling her that.

 

[Phemie]

I was just having an online conversation with a priest friend whom I’ve known since he was a young deacon. We were chatting in French and suddenly he asked me why I was using the term “vous” instead of “tu”. I mentioned this thread.

“You’ve known me since I wasn’t even 30 and before I was a priest! Don’t be silly.”