[bobjam]

Priests are celibate because they are monks or friars. Clerical celibacy hasn't always been Catholic policy though. It was enjoined upon the clergy by the Lateran Councils (2nd or 4th) in the late Middle Ages. The Eastern Orthodox churces allow married men to become priests (they do not allow priests to get married), however they require that the bishop must be a monk. Unfortunately, these "Catholic" groups are attempting to hijack a pertinant issue and count it amongst their highly questionable agenda. By the way, 1st Timothy 3 requires bishops to have a wife and children.

[Sneer]

As to 1st Timothy 3 the meaning is not that every bishop should have a wife (for St. Paul himself had none); but that no one should be admitted to the holy orders of bishop, priest, or deacon, who had been married more than once.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Clerical celibacy hasn't always been Catholic policy though. It was enjoined upon the clergy by the Lateran Councils (2nd or 4th) in the late Middle Ages.

Incorrect. Suggest you read Canons XXVII and XXXIII of the Council of Elvira, 295-302 AD, for starters. Then motor on over to the Council of Carthage, 390 AD:

"Ut quod Apostoli docuerunt, et ipsa servavit antiquitas, nos quoque custodiamus."

"What the Apostles taught, and what antiquity itself observed, let us endeavor also to keep."

You are mistaken regarding Paul's instructions to Timothy as being absolute, for Paul himself was celibate.