It’s a Priest.
So today I was at work and of course part of my job is to answer phone calls. I got a call from an elderly man and I began to take a message and he says his name is Father Last Name. (That’s not really his last name or else it would be super ironic). Turns out he is a Priest.
As we continued to talk, there came a point where I had to say a sentence that I would normally insert someone’s name in. The problem is he told me his name was Father Last Name. So it brought up a whole mess of questions. A whole dilemma for one sentence.
Am I supposed to call him Father? I’m not Catholic and I don’t know how that works. But is it disrespectful to not call him Father? The fact that he told me this was his name makes inclined to call him that. I mean, if that is how someone refers to themselves and introduces themselves, shouldn’t you take that into account and call them that?
I have a problem with that. Once someone tells me their name, they are labelled in my mind. Written in permanent marker on their forehead. Sometimes people will want you to call them by their nickname later on. NO! There is a time and a place where a person should be flexible. This is not it. Permanent Marker.
But the problem with the Priest is, am I being disrespectful because I am not Catholic and I am addressing him that way? Or Am I being hypocritical? And on the flip side, is Father an honorary title that shows years of study like a doctor? Because if he has somehow earned this title, it’s respectful to call him that.
I think he earned it just by agreeing to not have sex his whole life. Yikes.
I don’t know what to do about this. Hopefully he never calls back. I’m sure my boss agrees we don’t need business from with title issues.
