My father, my aunt and practically every Catholic I know says the very same thing. I myself just can't put "eating meat on Fridays" on the same level as the priesthood. Eating meat on Fridays is on par with Communion in the hand or on the tongue, bowing instead of genuflecting, etc.
He did say to give up everything and follow me. And a priest is acting "in persona Christi."
the biggest con is the very real probability that some American Catholics who've become accustomed to attending Mass weekly will now have to settle for attending Mass monthly
I'm sure any Catholic wanting to attend Mass once a week can find a parish within driving distance. Most of us drive a very great distance to bring the kids to baseball, hockey, soccer, etc. Some even travel to different states on the weekends for travel teams. Of course, it depends on one's priorities. And I'll say again, if we had more kids per family, the pool for priests would be greatly increased. We are paying the reaping what we've sown.
And what priestly shortage? With about 30% of Catholics attending Mass on Sunday and maybe 5% attending daily, how many priests do we need? I haven't been to a standing room only Mass since I was a kid. Empty seats all around, now.
A married clergy is OK in small doses. We have a married priest leading a parish about 25 miles from me. His parish can't support him so he "tag teams" with another parish and gets financial help from the archdiocese.
I would think that someone with a true calling would want to be a part of the priesthood - even if, as you say, they perceive the priesthood as a haven for homosexuals. Change occurs one by one.
Eating meat on Friday, prior to 1966, was a mortal sin.
So is attending Mass on Holy Days of Obligation, and the bishops are moving those around now at will.
I see a big difference between those and a pastoral practice like bowing or genuflecting.
? I haven't been to a standing room only Mass since I was a kid. Empty seats all around, now.
You've got Churches on every street corner in the Northeast. We've got parishes here in Texas, where I live, that are bursting at the seams, at every Mass.
One priest serving a parish of 7000 families is not unheard of.
We have a married priest leading a parish about 25 miles from me. His parish can't support him so he "tag teams" with another parish and gets financial help from the archdiocese.
The financial excuse is the last refuge for opposition to married priests.
People, especially Americans, tend to pay for what they get. Protestants support their clergy well if they are well served by them.
Catholics are cheapskates; we're used to people who live in poverty serving us.
Meatless Fridays is an Apostolic Tradition, like Lent, the use of the Sanctus at Mass, mixing water with the wine at Mass, the Sunday obligation, and the Order of the Diaconate, etc. See the Didache. Are those things reformable?
It is also still in the Code of Canon Law. If you do not do another penance on all Fridays, you must abstain from meat under the penalty of grave sin. The matter is intrinsically tied up with the satisfaction of divine law, which the Church has universalised for the faithful on Fridays, just as she universalised Sunday Mass attendance to satisfy the 3rd Commandment; that is why it is a grave sin. The only parvity of matter here is if one simply forgets out of absentmindedness, or does not realize Friday is still a day of abstinence unless some other penance is selected.