St Thomas
More Catholic Parish Bateman Western
Australia
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Reflections
Thinking Out Loud
A child is not a
vessel to be filled, but a lamp to be lit
(Hebrew Proverb)
Why are Catholic priests caller father?
Since the earliest times of the Catholic Church, the title Father has been used for religious leaders. Bishops, who are the shepherds of the local church community and the authentic teachers of the faith, were given the title. Consequently, St Peter may well have been addressed as Father Peter, in the sense of spiritual father. The likelihood of this address is supported by St Paul who identifies himself as a spiritual father. In writing to the Corinthians, he said: "I am writing you in this way not to shame you but to admonish you as my beloved children. Granted you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you have only one father. It was I who begot you in Christ Jesus through my preaching of the Gospel.: (1 Cor 4). The title was extended to Catholic prises who were sacramental confessors but it wasn't until the 19th century that the title was extended to all catholic priests in the English-speaking world.
Source: www.catholicexchange.com Encyclopaedia of Catholicism
The Butterfly (why do bad things happen to good people?)