[jobim]

The priest is considered a groom, like Christ the Groom, married to the whole Church
The vocation of the priest is to stand in the person of Christ
The Priest is a light shining in the darkness of the modern secular world. His fullest energy must be spent on his vocation

These statements are TRANSCENDENT, and the issues you raise are IMMANENT.

But then, this is the very fault line between Catholicism and "liberal Catholicism": the former attends to the heavens, and the latter remains existentially on earth.

[Apogee]

The British and the Roman Churches argued over this up to the seventh century. Along with a question of the dating of Ressurection Day and of tonsures. The latter issue is really imaterial, but I somehow think that the other two were resolved incorrectly, to the best of my understanding of scripture.

The scripture most pertinent to this passage seems to be missing:
Matt 19:10-12, ending with "He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."
Then there is Paul, the whole of 1 Cor 7. Here it is pointed out all the freedoms the unmarried have for serving the Lord, but too it is pointed out:
2 But, because of fornications, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
9 But if they have not continency, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

things to consider in the practical world, as we have a practical, immanent, religion. Transcendency is nice, but neither Jesus nor Paul seem to expect it of that many people.
I am not knocking celibacy, Jesus indicates that some have the gift, or have made the decision or however you wish to look at it. And I would not recommend that anyone renege on their vows that they have made, it is a good and beautiful thing, with many benefits. I suppose that ideally speaking the church is saying that it is a rare gift, and it is a requirement of a rare profession - that of the Roman Catholic priest. If not everyone should take such vows, then not everyone should become a priest.
The problem is that many who take such vows do not seem to have the ability to keep them, and should never have made them in the first place. The question then becomes what to do about it.
More fundemental, however, are questions like: "what (or who) is a priest? what is a vicar? does an immanent Christ require a vicar in the first place, or does the very idea nullify His immanency (being within us)? Are there varying degrees of priesthood, and if so, what are they, how does one delineate them, or are those who are not celibate merely charlatans?" I think the answers to the questions would predetermine the answers to the question of celibacy, and a good many others.