Celibacy is not a dogmatic *mandate* of Catholicism. It is a *disciplinary practice* which can change. The Orthodox have always had a tradition of married priests, which goes back to the very beginnings of Christianity itself. In many Protestant denominations, a man *must* be married before he is called by the church's board of elders to be a minister.
Regarding pedophilia, there are two major kinds of pedophilia. There is the kind which is committed by married men against little girls. This type of pedophilia is NOT the most common. The other type, MORE common, is committed by *unmarried* men against boys. A subset of this group preys on boys that are older, i.e. teenagers. A largely-married priesthood combined with better screening for homosexual pedophilia would reduce the numbers of these men in the Catholic priesthood.
Western Catholics need to face the fact that the numbers of men going into the priesthood are very, very small, even when you include "conservative" orders like the Legionaries of Christ, Opus Dei, and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. In my opinion, not only should the priesthood be opened to men who are married, but married permanent deacons should be considered for ordination as priests if they want it. Also, those men who left the priesthood over marriage should be invited to return and their marriages regularized (as long as they're not married to a divorced person w/o an annulment.) This would provide a large jump in the number of active priests in the West.
You are operating under the assumption that the liberal bishops actually want to have "a large jump in the number of active priests in the West." This is a naive view.
The "shortage" of priests we have is largely by design. Seminaries have been turned over to feminist agitator nuns who have an agenda of "priestesses" to support. Conservative, orthodox young men are routinely screened out before admittance as "too rigid" to be good pastors. Those who lie their way in, often find themselves persecuted for such sins as Eucharitic Adoration or, again, "rigidity" in adhering to Church Dogma.
The solution is not to open up the priesthood to those who left it because of sexual desire, but to pray for a Pope who will clean out the decaying corpus of the "Spirit of Vatican II"
SD
It's interesting to note how the Church is skating around the edges of the celibacy rule.
As has been mentioned, Anglican and Episcopalian men who convert to Catholicism are dispensed from celibacy. We've got five of them in our diocese here in Texas, and they are among the best preachers I've ever heard.
A little known practice that has occurred at least three times that I know of in the Diocese of Dallas and is about to occur in Fort Worth is the return of priests who left to marry but who are now divorced from their wives. None of these men (and I know two personally) sought laicization, so their marriages were never recognized by the Church.
Once they dumped their wives, or their wives dumped them, they petitioned the bishops to return, and they have returned to their former dioceses. This is all done with the full blessing of Rome.
OTOH, men who did the proper thing (as I did) and sought laicization (I was ordained a transitional deacon) will not even be considered for even the permanent diaconate.
Celibacy of course has nothing to do with pedophilia, or pederasty, or sexual deviancy. The Church has the right to demand celibacy if it wants to.
But the Church is also limiting the selection of candidates for the priesthood to men who feel called to celibacy, an admittedly small number.
The real tragedy of celibacy is that celibacy excludes a large number of men who might make exemplary Roman Catholic priests but will not consider it.
Unless, of course, they are Episcopalian, or are former priests who've failed as husbands and know they'll be welcomed back to the priesthood.