Why do you call your priests "Father"?

Why do Catholics call their priests "Father" when the Bible says . . . "Call no one on earth your father; for one is your Father, who is in Heaven." (Matthew 23:9).

Catholics call their priest "Father":
1. Because he IS a Spiritual Father to them.

a. In infancy he baptized them and, therefore, was the instrument . . . the agency . . . of their spiritual REBIRTH just as the physical fathers of Catholics are responsible for their PHYSICAL birth.
b. He gives them spiritual FOOD for their souls whenever they receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. "For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." (John 6: 57). PROVIDING NOURISHMENT IS ANOTHER OBLIGATION OF A FATHER.
c. In confession, the priest not only forgives sin in the name of Christ, but also ADVISES them as to the best way to overcome their difficulties . . . spiritual and material. THIS, TOO, IS THE DUTY OF A FATHER.
d. Like a father, the priest is always at the death-bed of a Catholic to console and assist him. No Catholic would WANT to die without a priest -- HIS SPIRITUAL FATHER -- beside him. Therefore, a priest does not DEMAND this title. Catholics call him "Father" as a sign of the affection he shares with their natural parents, and because he shares with them the duties and obligations of a parent.

THEREFORE, this text of St. Matthew is not to be taken literally or as a general law. Catholic priests do not DEMAND this title. It is for them a source of HUMILITY rather than of PRIDE, for it reminds the priest of his OBLIGATIONS as a spiritual FATHER to his flock.