What do you call Catholic priests?

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AveMaria12

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I was just wondering what protestants prefer to call Catholic priests as…
 
AveMaria12 said:
I was just wondering what protestants prefer to call Catholic priests as…
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What have you come to understand as the truth in this? What individuals “think” I have no idea. However I do know some very good protestants who correctly view them as teachers. And that my sister is why we call them “Fathers”.

Peace
 
Definately Father.

Unless he is a bishop, then I refer to him as Bishop Paul etc.
 
I kind of think of “Reverend” as being a title, “Pastor” as being a job description (since a parish with multiple priests will only have one pastor?), and “Father” as being a form of address.
 
GaryTaylor said:
What have you come to understand as the truth in this? What individuals “think” I have no idea. However I do know some very good protestants who correctly view them as teachers. And that my sister is why we call them “Fathers”.

Peace
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I don’t use reverend or pastor, I use FATHER
 
Most Protestants I’ve known have used “Father” out of respect for what they perceive (generally rightly) to be how priests want to be/conventionally are supposed to be called. No different than calling a Jewish rabbi “Rabbi” even if they think rabbis using the title conflicts with Jesus’ teachings. I’ve even heard them call the Pope the Holy Father, though they sure don’t believe in his office. When I was a Protestant I would call a priest Fr. Soandso even in my brief strongly anti-Catholic phase, though I thought Catholics were wrong to use “Father” as a title for their clergy, and that “Holy Father” was blasphemous.

Of course, there will be those Protestants who won’t call a priest Father, but I doubt those types would generally like to call a Catholic priest Reverend either, even if they use it for their own pastors.

The use of “Pastor” as a form of address (e.g., Pastor Rick) sounds so culturally Protestant that I find it hard to believe anyone would use it for a Catholic priest, unless perhaps out of ignorance.

Actually, as a factual note, while “Father” is the accepted form of address in everyday speech, the proper title for a priest when giving his name in formal writing (addressing him in a letter, for example) is Reverend (Rev.). Or Very Reverend if he’s a dean, I think, unless this is outdated.

Generally I think it is polite and civil to refer to individuals and organizations by what they call themselves/what they prefer to be called, as long as it is not reasonably likely to cause confusion, so I appreciate it when Protestants do that for Catholics and I try to do it in return, even when I do not agree that the name or title is strictly speaking accurate due to no valid Holy Orders or issues like that.
 
midori said:
I kind of think of “Reverend” as being a title, “Pastor” as being a job description (since a parish with multiple priests will only have one pastor?), and “Father” as being a form of address.
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I think this is about right.
 
I used to work for a company where I was doing credit updates.

So this one account was a Catholic church and my co-worker would not say Father D because “we should call no man father.” Because she is a “Bible believing Christian” and we needed to talk.

I was amazed at how incensed I was at the disrespect.

So I told her; I’m a Catholic, he’s a priest, it’s in the Bible.

Mere moments later, she said well Father D . . .
 
Along similar lines, she used to make me nuts. This is not hard to do. And I pray about it often.

So I would start a Hail Mary and often right out loud. You cannot be angry and pray at the same time.

One day she said, God loves us both. And I said yes L He does.

It got better after that.
 
I am from the old school, Lutherans don’t usually use the title priest at least in the US, but we call them Pastor or Father. I always believed that they should be called Pastor or Father with their last name even if they want you to use their first name. I always believed that familiarity breeds contempt.
 
I’ve always called a Catholic Priest, “Father”. Even my Great Aunt who was a Nun, was called Aunt Sister Mary and her last name, or Sister Aunt Mary… My cousin is a Priest. We grew up together, graduated together from High School… I do call him Father D… I don’t call him by his last name. Calling him Father D… took some getting use to, but I have no problem with it now.
 
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