Scripture, Tradition, Ecclesiastical Legislation, and traditional orthopraxis for over 2000+ years, to say nothing of the decisions taken by Johannes Paulus Magnus, teach me that Mandatory Priestly Celibacy will still be here until Jesus returns for the Final Judgement.
FYI re priestly celibacy
Thyis is really long -- okay, I confess, I merely skimmed -- but interesting.
A very good friend that is a Sister of St Francis has told me that in a study of church history class she found Celibacy was about preserving church property that was being willed to the offspring of the priests in Spain .
This was done under a man named Hildebrand, who is known in Catholic history of Pope Gregory VII, who lived from 1023 to 1085. He decide that this was an absolute, fixed law, without exception
If a man was going to continue to be a priest, he was separated from his wife totally, and his children permanently. All his property was confiscated. The the reasons, political and material. Priests up to that time were very influential people. The gifts of the church members to them were extensive. Pope Gregory the VII determined that priests controlled wealth that rightly belonged to the church and they would pass that wealth on to their children
"The motive for opposing the marriage of priests was to prevent the danger of a hereditary line which might appropriate ecclesiastical property to private use and impoverish the church." (Philip Schaff).
There is no biblical case for enforced celibacy on a pastor . The common reasons that are given today for the historic move had a basic asceticism to them, with the implication that sex between a husband and wife is dirty and sinful and the hands of a man that caress his wife are too dirty to hold the consecrated host ( and for many years that "uncleanness" carried over to the recipient as well)
What was the opinion of the apostles of this?
1st Timothy Chapter 4, listen to what the apostle Paul wrote: "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, both of which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer."
Luther addresses it in this letter, which would have been more contemporary.
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/nblty-05.html
Marriage is a holy estate, and the marriage bed undefiled. The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the scriptures to compare the church relationship with Christ to marriage .
I believe the Catholic church will have to ordain to the priesthood those married deacons just as they do married Episcopal priests at some point .
The parishes in our city no longer have an onsite Pastor at all churches, they share the time of the priest between parishes . They have nuns and Deacons as the administrators, they are combining parishes.
The article overlooks the indisputable fact that priestly celibacy arose only in the Partiarchate of Rome. All of the other Patriarchates maintained the custom of permitting the ordination of married men to the diaconate and priesthood, though by the 7th century only celibates (whether monastics or widowers) could be consecrated to the episcopate.
The canons of the Council of Gangra and of the Sixth Ecumenical Council make it clear that priests were not to be denied carnal relations with their wives, however ideal that state might be (for instance St. John of Kronstadt and his wife lived in contience throughout their entire marriage).
In the East, however, it is the rule that priests who are to celebrate the Liturgy must abstain from carnal relations with their wives from the time of Vespers on the night previous (as also all of the faithful who wish to receive the Holy Mysteries must abstain).
There is an amusing story about a Russian Archbishop of the 19th century who was teaching a seminary class. When the rule about abstaining from carnal relations from Vespers on was discussed, a young, conventionally minded seminarian, sputtered, something like "But. . .Father Sergei. . .back home. . . he celebrates Liturgy every morning. . .you mean he and his wife never. . ." The Archbishop looked over his glasses at the young man as asked, "And for what purpose did the Good Lord make the afternoon?".
[yawn]
Read later.