Protestant
Why do Catholics call priests 'Father'?
St. Paul himself called himself the spiritual father of the Corinthians; calling a priest 'Father' honors his role in begetting and nourishing the faith, not a rejection of God's unique fatherhood.
Catholic teaching
The priest acts in the person of Christ to feed the flock with word and sacrament, exercising a real spiritual fatherhood analogous to Paul's relationship to his converts. This honorific title flows from that ministry, not from rivalry with God.
Biblical foundation
St. Paul writes, 'I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel' (1 Cor 4:15), and calls Timothy 'my true child in the faith' (1 Tim 1:2). Christ's warning in Matthew 23:9 targets pride and rivalry with God, not the family and ecclesial vocabulary Scripture itself uses.
Scripture references
Historical evidence
Early Christian writers addressed bishops as 'father' from the second century onward, reflecting a lived pastoral reality rather than a later medieval invention.
The Church Fathers
“Nor let the Roman custom deceive certain persons, as if... one father... deserved not to be corrected.”