First of all in this ole material world we live in,a husband with a healthy income,mid hundred thousand and up,is a valuable commodity,I don't know any doc's who make less,do you?Despite the income I have heard complaining about the calls in the night.
Second,most of the wives I know are very much of the world and believe its best for overpopulation and numerous other causes they champion,to not procreate beyond the socially acceptable,two children per family.
Third,most of the wives I know (more than half)have great jobs.
Sinkspur,everytime I find one of your posts I end up thinking about points I really hadn't thought about before.The end result is that I become more convinced that relaxing the celibacy rules would be to court even more disasters.
I know you don't mean it this way, but if you think about it; that's a real insult to the eastern rite Catholics and all married clergy! And I can tell you that many celebates treat the wives of these married priests terribly. Why?
One other thing. Why are Catholics who even entertain the thought of married priesthood treated like lepers? The Church had married bishops, priests and deacons for quite some time! The east still does.
Really? When your access to the sacraments is limited due to the lack of priests, or your parish is closed to pay off the victims of pederasts, you'll re-think your objection to married priests.
We've got married priests today, and they're doing an outstanding job.
The clerical culture has to be broken, and married priests are the only way to do it. Otherwise, you'lll continue to have these guys covering for each other.