Some people call the priest “Father,” didn Jesus say not to call anyone Father except God?
In Matthew 23:9 Jesus does say “And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven,” but he was speaking against the Pharisees who were saying one thing and doing another. He was saying don’t call anyone a teacher or father or rabbi who perverts the faith that some of the religious leaders in Jesus’ time were doing. If we took this statement by Jesus out of context then what do we call our dads or our school teachers? That’s not what Jesus meant. St Paul told the Corinthians “Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel” (I Cor 14:15) and St John refers to his readers as “little children” in many places (1 John 2:1, 18; 4:4, etc.) indicating that they are spiritual fathers to the congregations. No one has to call the priest “Father,” but those who do are speaking to a relationship, a spiritual leader, just as other churches call their clergy “pastor,” which comes from the Latin, shepherd; a relational term speaking of the spiritual lead
