"Father Brown"

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 3/19/2003 1:50:58 PM Eastern Standard Time,
flanigan at OHIOU.EDU writes:

> >And indeed, this is what my cousin-in-law Merrie has been called:
> >Father (she has served as a chaplin in hospitals and prisons).
> >
> >Barbara
>
> Might she also be called Pastor Brown?  It's simple, neutral, and used as a
> generic lower-case job label by many religious communities, including
> Catholics.  I'm surprised that Merrie would accept "Father," even if it is
> "proper"!
>

No more surprising than that a Jewish chaplain would accept being addressed
as "Padre", that being the usual form of address from a soldier to a
chaplain.  And now that the Armed Forces have Muslim chaplains, we have quite
a bit of religious job labels to mullah over.