pope = father

[Bruno]

I am curious how Catholics explain this scripture (told by Jesus Christ):


"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and He is in heaven.  (Matthew 23:8-9)

 

[jukesk9]

As taken in context, it means not to call anyone else your spiritual father, ie, call no one else God, who is the Father in Heaven.

We call our priests Father because in 1 Cor. 4:15 - Paul writes, "I became your father in Christ Jesus." Further, in 2 Cor. 12:14 - Paul describes his role as parent over his "children" the Corinthians. And in 1 John 2:1,13,14 -John calls the elders of the Church "fathers."

 

[Malachi383]

Every man is called to be a husband and father. This is inseperable from the way God created us.

Priests are a husband to the Church (in persona Christi), as well as a father to them (hence the term Father ____, or for women (mothers and brides), Mother Superior, etc).

St. Paul, as do others, call themselves father.

So now we have to look at the original passage to see what it truly means. What I get out of it, is that we are to recognize that we have one Father in heaven. He is our true origin, and our true end.

If we take the passage literally, we cant even call our own parents "Father."