The RCC needs to conform the NT principle on this issue...among others....that it’s ok to have married men serve as priests. Whether they marry as a priest or before becoming one. It’s un unnecessary burden the RCC has enacted on this issue.
Ironically, while the RCC does not allow married men to become priests, if a married Episcopalian (the most liberal Protestant denomination out there) priest wants to convert to Catholicism, he’s allowed to and remain married.
“The unmarried man is busy with the Lord’s affairs, concerned with pleasing the Lord; but the married man is busy with this world’s demands and occupied with pleasing his wife. This means he is divided.
(1 Cor 7:32-33)
1 Timothy 3:1-13 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
Titus 1:5-16 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
MUST BE married.
And why?
The reason is given.....
"for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?"
The choice quite frankly is going to be between married priests and no priests. This has already reached crisis levels in places like Brazil where the ratio of Catholics to Priests is getting insanely high (and where married Evangelical Protestant ministers are drawing away much of that flock).
This Cardinal seems to be advocating married Priests in Brazil but not necessarily in other countries. That is problematic.
Married men are less likely to die for their faith than single ones; in the Spanish Civil War about 7,000 members of the clergy (including 12 bishops) were martyred by the communists in only one half of the country, and most could have saved their own lives if they’d simply renounced their faith. The Russian Orthodox Church had less than a quarter of that number of martyrs of Bolshevism throughout the USSR; the men had families to consider.
Even the married Apostles abandoned their families and with the exception of John, died as martyrs.
But you're in the position to tell us what the qualifications are?