Why are priests called 'Father'?

I was in a local pub recently – yes, really – and someone asked me why some parishes call their priests ‘Father’ whereas it’s not the custom everywhere.  I explained it to him and he was very happy with the explanation.  The conversation, like other conversations I’ve had with people outside the worshipping community about other things, made me wonder about the extent to which people within the worshipping community know about our practices and customs.

One might trace the origins of this particular custom right back to the holy scriptures.  In his First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4: 14-17), St Paul refers to himself as the ‘father’ of the believers; but, being too distant both in time and context, this can’t really be used as a basis for contemporary usage.  Prior to the Reformation, it was customary to call priests ‘Sir’ (meaning ‘senior’ or ‘elder’) followed by the priest’s Christian name (see, for example, The Voices of Morebath by Eamon Duffy, 2001, a book which traces the history of the church in one English parish through the turbulent events of the sixteenth century).  In some countries, notably Italy, the common title was ‘Dom’, from the Latin Dominus or ‘Master’; those who like champagne are probably familiar with ‘Dom Perignon’, bearing as it does the name of bubbly’s Benedictine inventor!

Prior to the 1800s, the title ‘Father’ was largely reserved to priests who belonged to religious orders, where it was sometimes rendered in its French form Pere or Italian Padre, the latter in general use in the British armed forces today.  It was only during the nineteenth century that the Roman Catholic Church in England adopted ‘Father’ as its preferred form of address for priests generally; and then it became gradually adopted by some parishes and institutions within the Church of England, too, as we see from accounts of church life in the decades following the beginning of the Oxford Movement in 1833.

The title ‘Father’ can, of course, be used in conjunction with the priest’s Christian name or surname.  The latter is more formal and it was the custom in the parish in which I served after my ordination in Birmingham.  It’s probably more common nowadays used in conjunction with the priest’s Christian name, which I personally prefer, at least among people who are familiar to me.

But to return to the question posed by my hostelry inquisitor: why do we have this custom?  There are two quite valuable factors in its favour.  Firstly, it is a title which can and should be used by everyone – young and old.  It has an objectivity about it which ensures that there is no ‘pecking order’ in a parish community based on age, social class or any other kind of status among the laity.  Secondly, it reminds the priest of his responsibilities in a way that is analogous to the father of a family; just as a father has no favourites among his children (or shouldn’t have), so the bit of distance that the title allows the priest to have from any and every individual ensures that he is not more distant from anyone, and that he can have an equal relationship with all his parishioners.  In parishes where the priest is not called ‘Father’, it’s common for different people to have a different kind of access to their priest – so, you’ll often find that the children address the priest differently from the way in which the adults do; which is undesirable in a parish community as it introduces distinctions based on status, thus undermining the common baptismal status which makes Christian people equals.

The title ‘Father’ has never conveyed to me a sense of superiority, as some people might argue that it does.  It reminds me of my responsibilities, not of my rights.  It helps me to bring to mind some words of St Peter, addressed to the elders of the fledgling Church: ‘Be the shepherds of the flock of God that is entrusted to you; watch over it…Never be a dictator over any group that is put in your charge, but be an example that the whole flock can follow (1 Peter 5: 1b-3).