[gusty]

Lets be honest. The celibate priesthood was created hundreds of years after the founding of the Catholic Church for economic and political reasons. The Church did not want Church land to end up in private family hands. Like everything else in Medieval Europe, the priesthood would become a hereditary post. Politically the Church was the only institution that provided social mobility at the time. It was a way to hold some hope to the peasant masses. If it did become closed, than peasants would have nothing to lose in turning the whole society upside down.

[karnage]

Celibacy was an informal part of the priesthood from the days of the early Church. But it became formalized over several centuries, beginning with the Council of Elvira in 295 and becoming decisive during the papacy of Gregory VII in the 11th century.

[kearnyirish2]

You could also look at the fact that some of the apostles left behind families when they were martyred as a good reason for celibacy; the martyrs of communism in the 20th century may have relented if someone put a gun to their wife/child’s head.