New Zealand Cardinal asks laity to stop calling priests 'father' to fight 'clericalism'

[Michie]

*You are in the Catholic forum*

Cardinal John Dew of New Zealand wrote a missive to Catholics of the Pacific archipelago urging them not to call priests "Father."
https://mcshwellington.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/4-April-2019.pdf


Continued below.
New Zealand cardinal asks laity to stop calling priests ‘Father’ to fight ‘clericalism’

 

[Monk Brendan]

*You are in the Catholic forum*

Cardinal John Dew of New Zealand wrote a missive to Catholics of the Pacific archipelago urging them not to call priests "Father."
https://mcshwellington.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/4-April-2019.pdf


Continued below.
New Zealand cardinal asks laity to stop calling priests ‘Father’ to fight ‘clericalism’

Is he himself still wanting to be calle "Eminence"?

 

[Michie]

Great question.

Is he himself still wanting to be calle "Eminence"?

 

[Stabat Mater dolorosa]

Perhaps the cardinal should just become a protestant instead

 

[Mark_Sam]

From the missive:

Being called “Father” may seem important to some priests, but is it really that important?

Yes. Yes it is. Spiritual fatherhood is at the core of the priesthood.

[...]the practice of calling us “Father” can be unhealthy because it becomes an expression of dependence which is based on a false and unreal idea of obedience.

My very soul depends on the Sarcaments of Confession and of the Eucharist. And only a priest can administer those. So I wouldn't call it an unhealthy dependence.

calling us “Father” makes our people act in such a way that people are put into a relationship of parent and child. It is not possible to have equal relationships between adults who are brothers and sisters if we call one of them “Father.”

Man, this dude (as I think His Eminence would prefer to be called) just keep missing the target. I don't want the priest to be my equal. I want him to act in persona Christi.

Fun fact: Here in Norway, we call our priests by the Latin pater. Actually, you're supposed to call (secular) priests pastor, as pater is reserved for the priests of religious orders. But no one follows this rule - we call all the priests pater. The Norwegian equivalent fader never really caught on, at least where I live.

 

[football5680]

If I just read the arguments without knowing the author, I would have said that a Protestant wrote it, especially with the first argument that was given. He didn't even explain why we call Priests "father."

 

[Rhamiel]

The anglosphere is really kinda horrible tbh

 

[Bob Crowley]

I'm not going to criticise Cardinal Dew, but I will make a couple of comments. First of all he's echoing a French priest, Fr. Jean-Pierre Roche, who apparently wrote an article addressing the issue. Secondly Australians and New Zealanders are pretty casual when it comes to names - we'll most likely call our boss by his first name, and I wouldn't be surprised if that even applied to the police force.

That said, I sometimes think there's not enough formality these days. When I was Presbyterian, the pastor was a stickler for formality. I prefer "Bob", but he always said "Robert" which of course is my full name. And he expected his title to be used eg. Mr..... Mind you, he would return the favour and use the title of other people.

And he nearly always wore his clerical garb.

I never asked him about that, but I overheard someone asking him once why he always wore it, including the "dog collar". It's pretty hot in our climate for several months of the year, and with tight collar, no buttons, long sleeves and long trousers, it would not have been the most comfortable choice of clothing.

His reply in part - "... people know what I stand for...". Now if were to walk around town, I could quite possibly pass a priest and unless I happened to know him, I wouldn't have a clue what he stood for.

I think we need a bit more formality sometimes - not less.