You wrote:
“Ok - but to continue ad nausiam- there are busy bodies in every church who try to tell the priest or minister how to live their personal lives...”
Okay, I can see that.
“Most priests do not take a vow of celibacy..”
No, almost ALL western Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy. If most did not take a vow, then most would of course be married. How many married Catholic priests do you know?
” - only religious, for the others it is the discipline of celibacy which is freely accepted as long as it is a help to ministry”
It’s a VOW. Whether or not they take it to help their ministry doesn’t change the fact that it is a VOW and almost all western Catholic priests take it.
” - but when it becomes a farce what with gay activity in the rectories and the number of straight priests with girl friends then it becomes only a control mechanism for the bishops.”
No. Bishops might actually have more control over priests without the vow then with it because the priests would have a family to support and the bishop could yank that support! As it is, celibate priests are tremendously unburdened by families, family related medical and financial issues and therefore are harder to control if control is an issue. This unburdened condition, however, is exactly what bishops want so that those priests can do more for the Church!
“That is not to say that there are not many many good celibate priests for whom celibacy is a real asset. But their number is much fewer than you might think.”
No, actually their number is probably about what I think it is, and probably greater than you think.