What's the big deal? My former parish had a married priest who'd been a convert but already married, in the '80's.
I have no problem with this at all.
However, should the wife precede her husband in death he then must adopt the discipline of celibacy for the remainder of his life.
I'll bet the Catholic church will never make a move for sainthood for anyone who was married in the priesthood.
As a Protestant, I have always thought required celibacy for priests to be a strange and unnatural practice.
Look at the Jewish practice: Rabbis are not celibate: indeed, they are encouraged to have large families, which are a point of pride for their congregations.
I am impressed by the large number of famous, talented men in Anglo-American history who were the sons of ministers. There is no such parallel, obviously, among Catholics. Insofar as the priestly calling attracts natural talent, that talent is rather systematically bred out of a population which practices priestly celibacy. (I bet I'll be in for it for mentioning that!)
The Catholic church is short of priests. A reasonable, practical, and humane solution would be to keep priestly celibacy for those who desire it, but to allow separate orders of married priests to exist in parallel. But I am just a lowly Protestant, so I doubt that the Pope would listen to me on this point.
BTTT!
"This is definitely the exception to the rule..."
No it isn't. We have the same situation in Plainfield, IL.