Pope: this is the title Catholics use to refer to their father… Yes, father, in the strictest and most etymological sense of the term.

Πάππας – papas – was one of the first words babbled by Greek-speaking children. Directed with effusive affection to the father who protected, fed, taught, corrected and guided them, this domestic expression was equivalent to our papa.

The Hellenes, who became children of God and of the Church through Baptism, soon bestowed their πάππας on their progenitors in the Faith, the Bishops. This affectionate epithet was thus applied to all the princes of the Church until the 6th century, when it became the prerogative of the Supreme Roman Pontiff, the Bishop of Bishops and, for that very reason, the father of fathers.

How wonderful it is to be Catholic! While all the rulers of the world are exalted for their power, influence or wealth, we have the privilege of seeing in our sovereign, above all, a father.