A very good friend that is a Sister of St Francis has told me that in a study of church history class she found Celibacy was about preserving church property that was being willed to the offspring of the priests in Spain .
This was done under a man named Hildebrand, who is known in Catholic history of Pope Gregory VII, who lived from 1023 to 1085. He decide that this was an absolute, fixed law, without exception
If a man was going to continue to be a priest, he was separated from his wife totally, and his children permanently. All his property was confiscated. The the reasons, political and material. Priests up to that time were very influential people. The gifts of the church members to them were extensive. Pope Gregory the VII determined that priests controlled wealth that rightly belonged to the church and they would pass that wealth on to their children
"The motive for opposing the marriage of priests was to prevent the danger of a hereditary line which might appropriate ecclesiastical property to private use and impoverish the church." (Philip Schaff).
There is no biblical case for enforced celibacy on a pastor . The common reasons that are given today for the historic move had a basic asceticism to them, with the implication that sex between a husband and wife is dirty and sinful and the hands of a man that caress his wife are too dirty to hold the consecrated host ( and for many years that "uncleanness" carried over to the recipient as well)
What was the opinion of the apostles of this?
1st Timothy Chapter 4, listen to what the apostle Paul wrote: "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, both of which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer."
Luther addresses it in this letter, which would have been more contemporary.
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/nblty-05.html
Marriage is a holy estate, and the marriage bed undefiled. The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the scriptures to compare the church relationship with Christ to marriage .
I believe the Catholic church will have to ordain to the priesthood those married deacons just as they do married Episcopal priests at some point .
The parishes in our city no longer have an onsite Pastor at all churches, they share the time of the priest between parishes . They have nuns and Deacons as the administrators, they are combining parishes.