Becoming a priest is a vocation and a choice. One may serve God, certainly, in other ways.
Regarding Peter, he was married before an apostle, but tradition has maintained he was celibate thereafter.
Tradition precedes Scripture. Indeed only by Tradition can we know what was the authentic Scripture. You have put the cart before the horse.
The cart before the horse? This whole statement, were it not so sad, would be laughable. "Tradition has it..."
Where is this provable?
If Tradition precedes scripture, then why do we need scripture? If Tradition is what is needed to PROVE what IS scripture, why not rely on "Tradition" alone?
If tradition precedes scripture, and proves it, then certainly you can show, in Scripture where your claim is true.
Hoss
Catholics put the wrong thing in final authority.
The Word of God stands forever. Jesus did nothing but condemn the traditions added to the Law in His day. No doubt He would do the same today.
There is no knowledge of Truth outside Scripture. If tradition supersedes Scripture, Scripture is meaningless. there’s no need for it. All we have to rely on then is church tradition.
“Indeed only by Tradition can we know what was the authentic Scripture”
That is absurd, as “Tradition” is not even a testable medium, but is an amorphous medium which cannot be written and codified as a canon (http://www.catholicplanet.com/TSM/insights-tradition.htm), and the real authority then is the Infallible Magisterium (IM), as it claims to define Tradition and Scripture. But its authority is effectively itself.
The way writings became established as Scripture was not thru Rome’s IM, which took over 1400+ years after the last book was written to provide a finalized, “infallible” canon (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2661829/posts?page=217#217), but it was established as from God like as Jesus and the apostles were, because of God’s manifest supernatural attestation to them, and by their complementarity, and inherent enduring Heavenly qualities, which placed them on the saint’s best seller list. By such all spiritual authority is established, in proportion to their claims The best church councils could do was to recognize such, but that did not make such writings scripture, nor do they owe the enduring devotion they are given to such.
As for clerical celibacy, this was a developed discipline, and the EOs. also following Tradition, much disagree on this. And see my prior post.
Pope Benedict XVI’s choice as the church’s top official for priests has said that celibacy “is not a dogma,” and that the Catholic church “can reflect” on the subject. The explosive character of the issue, however, was reflected in a “clarification” issued in the name of the cardinal by the Vatican Press Office on Dec. 4. Cardinal Claudio Hummes, 72, of São Paulo, Brazil, was nominated Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy on Oct. 31. He made the comments as he left for Rome in an interview with the Brazilian publication Estado de São Paulo. “Even if celibates are part of our history and of Catholic culture, the church can reflect on the question of celibacy, because it’s not a dogma but a disciplinary norm,” Hummes said. Hummes, a Franciscan, recalled that several Apostles were married, and that the discipline of priestly celibacy in the Western church developed several centuries after the institution of the priesthood itself. “The church is not stationary, but an institution that changes when it has to change,” Hummes said. “The church must first discuss if it is necessary to reconsider the norm of celibacy.” - http://www.orthodoxanswers.org/celibacy
More: http://orthodoxchurchfathers.com/fathers/npnf214/npnf2125.htm
http://www.lightshinesindarkness.com/celibate_priest.htm (evangelical)