What those who advocate that priests should marry always forget is that a priest is different from the rest of us and is held to a much higher standard. The priest is married to the Church - one priest once described his Breviary as his wife. I cannot believe that the priests who make the headlines read their Breviaries every day as they are required to - those beautiful daily prayers would have strengthened them and kept their minds on their vows and Holy Orders.
Putting aside the fact that a priest has not the time nor the finances to support a wife and children and that such a relationship would be doomed from the start, a priest is bound by Canon Law to be a member of a Community of priests, whether it is as a Franciscan or a Dominican or any number of other Priestly Societies. He must live and pray with them, again gaining strength and support from his brother priests.
Celibacy is a God-given grace and cannot be measured within the self-gratification norms of our "present sex-drenched culture", as Kersten describes it so perfectly. Those who argue for marriage for priests simply do not understand the sanctity and holiness of the vocation, and the duties that attend to it.
We are ALL called to sanctity and holiness, Orual, not just priests and those in orders.
Your implication seems to be that celibacy is the only way one can reach perfection.
Also, I sense a little "sex would sully" tone to your post, as if relations with a woman would somehow detract from the priesthood.
Putting aside the fact that a priest has not the time nor the finances to support a wife and children and that such a relationship would be doomed from the start,
Clearly not, as Eastern Rite and Lutheran and Episcopalian converts to the priesthood attest.