Matthew 23:8ff - “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah."
Notice that if we take what Jesus out of context and misinterpret the texts we should not call anybody "teachers" and "instructors" and "fathers" anymore.
Most Protestants and anti-Catholics like to use that verse
from the bible to discredit the Catholic practice of calling our
ordained Priests "Father" as their formal title.
Here are the the Biblical New Testament references to the theology of the spiritual fatherhood came from:
1 Cor. 4:14–15 - "I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your
father in Christ Jesus through the gospel".
Acts 7:2 - "To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran."
1 John 2:13-14 - "I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from
the beginning."
Romans 9:10 - "And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac..."
We only have one Father (Abba) who is God Himself. We don't equate calling our Catholic Priests "father" to God but simply as spiritual fathers like the apostles were from the Bible verses above.
No one would deny a child the opportunity to tell someone that she loves her father. Common sense tells us that Jesus wasn’t forbidding this type of use of the word "father". The role as spiritual fathers came from the apostles as stated above.
