06/16/2024
“Why are the priests called fathers?”
By Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas
The father gives life and the father cooperates with a mother in giving life. But the priest is also a father, a different kind of father. He doesn’t have a wife. He does not work with the mother. The priest generates life by baptizing because the baptismal font is the womb of the church. The priest generates life by forgiving in the sacrament of reconciliation by feeding in the sacrament of the Eucharist, by bridging, by connecting people, by consoling people, by encouraging people. A priest is a father because a priest is an apostle of life. As we remember and thank God for the fathers of all of us. Do not forget your parish priest is your father also. Father of your soul. Father of your spiritual life. Pray for us so that we may be Jesus for all of you. Pray for us so that we may be the image of our Father God for all of you. To my brother priests,
Happy Father’s Day!