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Doctors, who are married and with families get such calls. So do men who are members of volunteer fire departments across the country. So do Protestant pastors when one of their people is ill. Aw, poor Father.

My take is, why should catholics settle for second or third best burnt out priests? There are physical limits. We as a prolife group could easily afford to supply a fresh team of celibate priests full time if we so choose. Why shouldn't we go for the best? Why would you settle for less?

Don't get me started by citing protestants. They have a poor track record of going with the lowest common denominator, on many issues.

Doctors, who are married and with families get such calls. So do men who are members of volunteer fire departments across the country. So do Protestant pastors when one of their people is ill. Aw, poor Father.

Without touching the many sound theological reasons why priests should not be permitted to marry, there are endless practical reasons why they shouldn't.

Doctors work in shifts and are not on call every day of the year. Firefighters get mandated time off as well. I grew up best friends with a Methodist minister's daughter, and they saw their dad at night most nights.

Priests do not get that sort of time off. Knowing plenty of doctors and having worked for the Church in the parish office, I can assure you that priests do not get the same sort of down time. Not even close. By 8:00 AM, the priest had already served early mass, visited the school, worked on correspondence, etc.

If priests aren't in church (they celebrate Mass every day, seven days a week) they're taking care of church business, or they're visiting the sick and infirm, or they are teaching RCIA, or they are overseeing events at the local Parochial school(s), or they are doing fund raising, or they are doing pre-marital counseling, or they are counseling parishioners about various issues, or they are taking part in various feast days, or they are in confession, or in training, or they are doing paperwork, or they are preparing for the next Mass, or they are at a funeral, or a wedding, or a baptism, or a death bed or a blessing.

Many times, as we were leaving the parking lot after RCIA (9:30 or 10:00 at night) the priest would get in his car to go to the hospital or a private home for prayers. And he'd be at Mass again early the next morning.

With all due respect to them, priests would make terrible husbands as they would be totally unable to put their earthly family first and do the job God invited them to do.