Preppy! Don't leave yet!

armandos_girl

Are you still here?  I haz a Catholic etiquette question for you... ('cause I'm a sucky Catholic)

jensneb

Me too....ask away!

armandos_girl

Ok, so this RFP I'm working on is going to a Catholic priest.  My boss is ahandshake casual good old boy type of guy (and not Catholic so he won't know the answer either) so we normally address our RFPs with their proper name (Mr. Firstname Lastname) at the top and then Dear Firstname.

What would be the etiquette for a Catholic priest that we don't know?  Dear Father Firstname?  Dear Father Lastname?  Obviously at the top it would be addressed to Father Firstname Lastname.

This is what happens when you don't grow up in the Catholic church and go to Sunday school.  I never learned these things.

 

jensneb

You can either address it just to his first and last name, or Rev. _____ or Father _______, any would be approrpiate.  Some are even Monsignor (not sure if I spelled that right.  But most aren't picky about how they are addressed (at least from my experience.

armandos_girl

Ok, now I'm all confused.

Here's what I'm thinking the letter would look like

"Father Firstname Lastname

Catholic Church of Blahbityblah

Address

City State Zip

 

 

Dear Father ________"

 

My question is do I put his first name or last name in the blank?

armandos_girl

Oops!  Sorry Savannah, didn't see your reply.  That answers my question exactly.

jensneb

That would be fine, and his first name would go in the blank.

armandos_girl

Thanks!  I've always called my priests Father Firstname when I was speaking to them, but I didn't know if we needed to be more formal than that in a business letter.

MelCfromMN

Where I live it all depends on the priest. My main church it's Father Larry (firstname), my mom's Church it's Father Bernhaur(lastname). But to answer your question I think your safe to just say Father firstname, I don't think he'd be offended. Do you know if its an older priest or a younger one? I guess maybe that's part of why we do this? My mom's is older, mine is a younger guy.

armandos_girl

Neither of us has ever met this potential customer, so I don't know how old he is.  Texas tends to have fairly liberal Catholics though (i.e. jeans are acceptable in church, which is not always the case in the Northeast) so I thnk we'll be ok with just Father Firstname.

preppynewlywed

I am back!  Sorry.  I needed Whole Foods.