[Conservative til I die]

Someone correct me if I am wrong but as I recall from history priests were allowed to marry until about the 6th century. The practice was outlawed because of many scandals involving marrying for the sake of obtaining the rights to property or some such thing as were the customs of the time. Certainly this is not a relevant reason today.

Celibacy has always been preferred. Yes, at various times, celibacy has been more of the rule than at other times. However, celibacy has always been preferred and for a majority of the Church's history, mandated. One thing to note is that in all Rites of the Church both East and West, bishops have always been drawn from the ranks of the celibate.

Personally, I think it would be a healthy thing to have married priests. Let the flames begin.

The reason the flames will begin is because you're just giving us your personal 21-st century-centric opinion with no reasoning to back it up.

[43north]

The current homosexual scandal in the Church does a pretty good job of backing up my contention.

Name me some other religions (aside form Mormons) who allow their pastors to marry who have homosexual / pedophillic scandals happening. Lutherans? Baptists? Jews? Evangelicals?

Celibacy is NOT a normal human state for man or woman. To continue to insist upon it and denying that sexuality is one of God's gifts has lead us to this morass.