Question for catholics on Priests

[sunlover1]

Jesus meant dont call any man Father in the same sense that God is the Father -- dont worship anything/one but God. He also said call no man teacher, but we even have Sunday School teachers -- blasphemy right within our churches! of course He's saying don't replace God with anyone/thing in our lives.

Hmmm, no I dont think that could be it.
I looked at the context and what Jesus
said BEFORE the passage I quoted, shows
exactly what He meant:

, 6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. 8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. 9 And call no man your..

He sure wasnt talking about men calling others Rabbi
in place of God, but rather about men esteeming
some above others, or should I say , desiring
to be esteemed above other men.

Thus, "All ye are brethren".

Must be something else He meant.
He didnt mean dont call others
Father IN PLACE of God.

 

[jckstraw72]

ok, good point, i shoulda looked at the whole passage rather than relying on memory. but still, Paul refers to himself as a father, but he could do so without being proud and desiring accolades. its the same story with priests.

 

[mont974x4]

I think the issue is how the people think about it when they call priests "father"...especially the pope.....not so much as how the priests view the title.

 

[jckstraw72]

i call priests Father 1. bc thats just what he's called and Im not going to try to change an ancient tradition based on my own ideas
2. out of respect for their office (just like we honor the President whether we particularly like him or not -- its an honorable office) --bc hte priesthood does not belong to the clergy, it belongs to Christ who is our Priest. In essence Christ is the priest in every parish, and the human priest is his instrument. Thats an honorable thing.

 

[mont974x4]

OK, we're just pointing out Scripture and what it says.

Of course, we have totally different ideas as to what Scripture says about the priesthood too.

 

[jckstraw72]

we are all royal priests of course -- the role of a priest is to offer and sacrifice to God, which we all do. The clergy is the ministerial priesthood, bc someone has to be in charge and run the show basically. a pastor plays that role in Protestant churches.

 

[mont974x4]

Yeah the hierarchy of the local church would be it's own thread. LOL

Even in protestant churches there's some variation.

Plus, their is the father as family priest issue as well.


OK, enough hijacking for me.



Jay

 

[PaladinValer]

I have a question for catholic Christians. What do priests, bishops, cardinals and others in the "Presbytere" call each other, and in what way does the Pope call them? Another words, do they all call each Father? Just curious.

"Father" is an honorific; nothing more.

bishops and cardinals are also bishops, or episkopos.

Actually, you need to nix "cardinals" from that list, since according to the canon laws of your church, even a layman can be a cardinal.

Cardinals are not a type of clergyman but it is an office within the Church.

Would they call each other cousin?

No.

It is the ideal of headship and authority that is the issue. The rcc practice usurps Christs authority as head of His Church.

Problem is, we Anglicans and other Apostolic Churches utilize the same tradition of calling our priests, "Father" (and "Mother" for women priests in the Anglican Church).

Who's the Pope of us Anglicans?

Who's the Pope of the Eastern Orthodox?

Your argument doesn't hold.

 

[Catholic Christian]

I do believe they call each other Father. But, if I may digress, I'd like to say this:

Was Christ’s Church hierarchical? Yes. He chose twelve apostles, made Peter the leader, and gave them authorities that all the other disciples did not have. Later, in the book of Acts, the hierarchy develops further. The apostles appoint Deacons (greek - diakonos ), Priests (greek - presbyteros ), and Bishops (greek - episkopos), and each have different duties. It is the same today in the Catholic Church

Now, Cardinals are just bishops, but they can vote in a conclave. The pope is actually a bishop too, but since his diocese is Rome, where Peter last ministered, he is the successor of Peter, and therefore "pope". An arch-bishop is just a bishop of a large diocese. But it comes back down to the main three (above). The Catholic Church today is hierarchical, just like the Church began in the Bible.

I hope some of this is informative

 

[MichaelAMDG]

Jesus says not to use the title Father (Matthew 23:8-9) yet he Himself uses it in parables to refer to Father Abraham (Luke 16:24), the fathers (John 7:22), father David (Mark 11:10). Stephen uses it in Acts 7:2. St Paul calls Abraham the father of us all (Rom 4:16). He even calls himself a father (1 Cor 4:5). It is also used in 1 John 2.

The bottom line is that we can't just quote verses, like Matthew 23, out of context. The bible needs to be taken as a whole. And when taken as a whole, a "father" is one who cares for the spiritual wellbeing of his children, passes onto them the Gospel, etc. Is this not what our Fathers do?

I spend a lot of time with priests and even some with groups of bishops. The general norm is that when in the company of your brothers of equal status, you don't use the formal address. So priests generally don't call each other "Father _____" when in groups of just priests. But when the group is mixed with laity, or when refering to a fellow priest in a presentation, homily, etc - they will use Father ______. Bishops tend to be the same way.

I hope that helps answer the two divergencies of the thread.

 

[Tdigaetano]

All Priests are Deacons, Not all Deacons are priests.
All Bishops are Priests, Not all Priests are Bishops.
Cardinals are a special...
Some Cardinals are Bishops, Some are Priests, some could be deacons...
The Pope is a bishop.

 

[Monica02]

Watch the Bishop's Conference. You will see them referring to each other as "Excellency" or "Eminence".
I believe cardinal archbishops are referred to as "Eminence" and bishops as "Excellency". I am not sure what they refer to archbishops as (Emminence vor Excellency). The Holy Father is referred to as "Holiness". I suppose in private, if they know each other well enough, they probably refer to each other by first name.

 

[ChaChynga]

Brothers mostly and sometimes fathers, which the scripture is plain to not do.

This Catholic made an interesting video.

In some of the other videos he made they call him Brother.

I have a question for catholic Christians. What do priests, bishops, cardinals and others in the "Presbytere" call each other, and in what way does the Pope call them? Another words, do they all call each Father? Just curious.

 

[ThomasAbel70]

you seem to be confused. "brother" is not a Greek word. actually the way it goes is: "adelphoi" does not necessarily mean blood brother. read the Greek -- you wont find the word "brother" in there anywhere (hint: bc thats an English word)

Exactly.

And...if we wanted to be "literal", then we'd note that in The Bible, they weren't called his "brothers" or even "cousins" but literally "kinsmen" which can run be anything from literal brother to cousin to countryman of no relation whatsoever.

For those literalists, this would mean that Peter's mother gave birth to 3,000 children when Peter got up and converted that amount of people with his first sermon post-Ressurection calling them "brothers".

Make sure that you are reading the Koine Greek. Too many make the mistake of comparing modern Greek words to scripture causing all kinds of confusion.



God Bless.

Pax.

 

[Tdigaetano]

Brothers mostly and sometimes fathers, which the scripture is plain to not do.

This Catholic made an interesting video.

In some of the other videos he made they call him Brother.

That is a funny video, the guy isn't really Catholic, He goes around saying the Catholic church hasn't had a pope in 100 years, and generates a lot of anti-catholic propaganda, and appears as the "token" Catholic on protestant radio programs.

I've been going to Mass for almost 25 years, I have been to about 8 different churches, and have yet to see any of the stuff he has shown in his video. There are a handful of Churches in America that say they are "Catholic", but really they arn't, just a group of people that want to deceive the faithful.

But, part of it was true that the devil wants to destroy the Mass because of the Grace that flows from it. If the devil does ever destroy the Mass, then Christ will have failed. But, we know Christ can't fail so, there maybe a threat to the Mass, but it will never destroy it.