[DallasMike]

Or was he saying that there is a higher calling than family and children?

There is a higher calling and Paul says that if a person can accept not being married, then it is a good thing. However, he also said that it was a heresy for the church to forbid marriage to someone, and he also made it plain that Peter and many of the apostles had wives who travelled with them.

The fact remains that forbidding clergy to marry is a Gnostic heresy that entered the church long after the early days.

[RobbyS]

Paul obviously thinks of the single life as being more appropriate for a Christian, especially an Christian than the married life, although he says it is up to the individual."Better to marry than to burn." No one is absolutely bound by the Church to celibacy. It is always a voluntary act. Both priests and nuns can receive release from their vows. And priests who marry still remain priests, but they may no longer exercise their powers publicly, only in an emergency.

[RobbyS]

You and I read Paul differently. The Catholic Church has very condemned gnostic teaching. Celibacy is a practical oblgation. imposed on priests in the Latin rite. It has been retained because it has worked very well. The problems encountered by the Protestant ministry/Orthodox priesthood do not take away from the benefits of a married clergy. My personal objection to the movement for a married clergy is that it is being driven by ideologues who make it part of a radical makeover of the Church.