Your history is missing some important facts. It was not until the 1200’s under Pope Innocent II that the church rules changed to only prohibit married priests.
1) “For the first 1200 years of the Church’s existence, priests, bishops and 39 popes were married.” - Source: Kelly, J. N. D. Oxford Dictionary of Popes. New York, Oxford Press. 1986.
2) “Celibacy is not essential to the Priesthood.” - quote Pope John Paul II - Source: Time Magazine. July 1993.
3) “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” St. Peter, the pope who was closest to Jesus, was married.
“It was not until the 1200’s under Pope Innocent II that the church rules changed to only prohibit married priests.”
Married priests are not prohibited.
In fact, there are many married priests right now.
1) “For the first 1200 years of the Church’s existence, priests, bishops and 39 popes were married.” - Source: Kelly, J. N. D. Oxford Dictionary of Popes. New York, Oxford Press. 1986.
Your posting is missing some significant facts - I posted from Church councils and from Patristic sources about celibacy - and those excerpts quite clearly mention the fact that many priests and bishops were married, but living a continent lifestyle. The Church certainly did not disdain unmarried priests, but wanted the married ones to be concentrating on God, not on temporal lifestyles. At any rate, why does a misreading of my post supported by the Oxford Dictionary of Popes (an Anglican undertaking) trump my original post supported by quotes from the Vatican paper which is liberally sprinkled with quotes from Patristic and Church sources from the fourth and fifth centuries in support of that post?
2) “Celibacy is not essential to the Priesthood.” - quote Pope John Paul II - Source: Time Magazine. July 1993.
Nobody said that it was.
3) “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” St. Peter, the pope who was closest to Jesus, was married.
Yes? And? Many of the Apostles were unmarried and Jesus and Paul both had good things to say about celibacy in the service of God.
Paul was unmarried (and so was Jesus, obviously). Barnabas was unmarried. Scripture is silent on the married status of any of the rest - excepting Peter. The Church from the beginning believed in continency of its clergy and over the centuries, strengthened that belief.