Priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church, has been practiced from the earliest centuries ref. It was not practiced by the lay people, except by those who are not married. Why is that so difficult to understand?
I was commenting on the scripture passage said by Paul that you quoted to defend the idea of celibacy. You cannot have it both ways. You want to assume Paul is recommending a life without marriage (and, of course, celibacy) as the ideal for a priest, yet you leave out where he is speaking to both men AND women and he mentioned it was because:
I Corinthians 7:25 Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. 26Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for you to remain as you are.
So, Paul was not just speaking to non-lay people. That was my point, that if Paul's recommendations were meant for all time, we would probably not be here speaking as Christians. So that's why I don't think he meant it for us for all time, but only because of the present time. Not difficult at all to understand, unless one wants to be obstinate and say they are correct and everybody else is wrong-headed about this subject.