[wideawake]

The big idea of have celibacy is nonsense, especially in today sex obsessed Western societies.

The discipline of celibacy was originally adopted as a response to a sex obsessed Western society - the Roman Empire.

Celibacy was a discipline which had zero appeal to the worldly attitudes of the ancient Mediterranean.

The difference today is that those who vowed celibacy in the 1st century on the whole lived it heroically, dynamically and unapologetically.

Only a minority of modern priestly celibates live up to their standard.

[conservlib]

The orthodox priests get married, and they perform a good service to their parishioners. The orthodox church did not deviate from the teaching of Jesus one inch, and it has more deeply religious followers than the Catholic church has now. Hence, celibacy did not do the Roman Catholic church any favor.