I’m sure this post will get many likes by my “Title-Reading Only” Christians brothers and sisters simply based on their interpretation (or misinterpretation) of Mathieu 23:9: “Call no man father….”
First off, if that interpretation was accurate, St. Stephan committed blasphemy in Scripture when he refers to “our father Abraham” in Acts 7:2; as did St. Paul in Romans 9:10, where he speaks of “our father Isaac.”
The custom of Catholics reverently referring to priests as “Father” is biblical.
According to Catholic.com, Paul refers to the spiritual fatherhood of priests with his statement, “I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4:14–15).
Peter followed the same custom, referring to Mark as his son: “She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark” (1 Pet. 5:13).
Additionally, John said, “My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1); “No greater joy can I have than this, to hear that my children follow the truth” (3 John 4). In fact, John also addresses men in his congregations as “fathers” (1 John 2:13–14).
By referring to these people as their spiritual sons and spiritual children, Peter, Paul, and John imply their own roles as spiritual fathers. Since the Bible frequently speaks of this spiritual fatherhood, we Catholics acknowledge it and follow the custom of the apostles by calling priests “father.”
Failure to acknowledge this is a failure to recognize and honor a great gift God has bestowed on the Church: the spiritual fatherhood of the priesthood. [1]
I get all that, but here’s something else fathers do — they stick around!
When I was a kid, priests came to a parish and stayed long enough where you could develop a sense of security in their fatherhood. Unless something tragic happened, they just didn’t leave. And if they had to leave, they left you in the hands of another strong father-figure.
That doesn’t happen today. Priest come and go. Sure, we can blame the priest shortage, but is there really a world-wide shortage of priests?
Between 1970 and 2017, the number of priests has declined from 419,728 to 414,582. At the same time, the Catholic population has nearly doubled, growing from 653.6 million in 1970 to 1.229 billion in 2012. Those combined stats, however, are quite misleading since Mass attendance in most nations is substantially down, around or below 40%.
Today, there are actually more priests for the Collect in attendance, per ratio, worldwide, than there were in 1970.
That doesn’t mean we stop praying for more vocations to the priesthood. We also don’t punt and come complacent, relying solely on Deacons, Pastoral Associates, and alike. The Catholic Church needs her priests!
When I asked my parish pastor why we don’t invite foreign priests to fill in the void, his response was shocking.
“No one would show up,” he said. He went on to explain how a visiting priest with an accent stood in for him one weekend (I believe the priest was Irish) and the parishioners did nothing but complain. Imagine, he continued, if it was someone without a strong command of English.
What?!
In my childhood parish, we had a priest who did not have a strong command of English. He also spoke softly. You had to really struggle to listen to his sermons. However, he had such a love for the Eucharist and his ministry that parishioners fell in love with this father-figure. Many began to weep at Mass when he announced his transfer from the parish. Thankfully, back then, we had other parish priests, so his departure did not tear apart the congregation.
However, when there’s just one priest for a parish, their departure can be devastating.
A family needs both a mother and father, who are present, attentive, and faithful to each other and the Church. We have so many studies that shows what happens to families when a father is not present — especially its negative effects it has on boys. We can also see the negative effects the lack of Fathers is having on the Catholic Church.
We venerate Saints like Patrick, Xavier, Isaac Jogues, Ignatius of Loyola, Junipero Serra who traveled to foreign lands to spread the Word. Unless given the gift of tongues, they most likely had to learn the native languages and spoke with an accent. Yet, there are Dioceses in the United States that continue to limit the number of foreign priests who can come to our shores, bringing the strength of their belief with them.
That’s not only UnAmerican; that’s downright unCatholic!
Until we have enough priests that can tend to one spiritual family and stay, just like all Judeo-Christian fathers are called to do, maybe — just maybe — we should stop calling Catholic priests “Father”?
James Henry is the author of Corporation YOU: A Business Plan for the Soul, and two children books: The Second Prince and Klaus: The Gift-giver to All. For six years, James taught At-Risk kids in Los Angeles. Today, he lives in New York where he continues to write — and teach. With sincere thanks, James would like to thank Zoltan Suga from Pixabay for providing the image for this blog post on CorporationYOU.com.
To contact James or book an interview, please contact Mark of Goldman & McCormick PR at (516) 639-0988 or Mark@goldmanmccormick.com.
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Corporation YOU 
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