This may sound silly, but I don’t understand when and why we use these different titles within the Catholic church.
I wasn’t raised in Catholicism but my husband was so our kids attend a Catholic school.
The Priest is referred to as “Father Blahblah” then he sends memos out as “Rev. Blahblah” and then I’ve also heard Bishop used in services before? I’m just very confused.
Thanks yall 🙂
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Priest is the name for his position. A priest is someone who completed seminary and took his vows to lead mass. Father is a title or honorific you give someone with that position. It’s kind of like how someone who gets their medical degree is a doctor (lowercase D) but when you refer to them, you call them Doctor Johnson (capital D). Reverend is just another title, which also means someone who leads the church. Most Catholic priests wouldn’t use it, as it is more generally used for other Christian religious leaders, but it still could be used.
A bishop gets into the whole Catholic hierarchy. One or more priests will be assigned to a specific church. The Catholic Church breaks up areas into bigger areas they call a diocese. I live in Austin. Austin is in the Austin Diocese which comprises 25 different counties around Austin. The leader of the diocese is also a priest, but because they run the diocese, they are given the title of bishop. Each diocese will have a cathedral, which is basically the head church of the diocese. The bishop is always the head priest of the cathedral, though they will rarely lead mass.
Then there is the biggest (by people not by size) diocese of a region which will be called the archdiocese, and this is led by an archbishop. For me, that archdiocese is the Houston/Galveston diocese.
The next highest ranking would be a cardinal, who the Pope can choose from any bishop or archbishop to be bestowed the title of cardinal. The only real difference for a cardinal, is that they are the ones who actually meet and elect the new pope. And the pope himself doesn’t **have** to be a cardinal, but since 1379, every elected pope has been one.
I’m going to assume you know what the pope is, so I won’t go into detail there, other than to relate this back to what was said previously. By being elected pope, that person is also the Bishop of Rome, and therefore the head of that diocese.
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