[ThomasMore]

I believe that a celibate clergy is vastly superior.

Besides availability, in what ways?

Know that I'm not promoting the elimination of the discipline. I see great value in it. Just probing, as it were. But if celibacy is a calling, and I've been told that it is, then having some married priests wouldn't affect those who choose celibacy, would they?

[Antoninus]

Besides availability, in what ways?

You can't just say 'besides availability'. By 'availability,' I mean total commitment. A celibate priest can give his entire life to serving Christ's Church in the way no married minister ever could. A married minister always has divided loyalties - between the Church and his family. A celibate priest, on the other hand, has made a very real and very public lifetime commitment to Jesus Christ and his Church. He has forsaken mother, father, brothers and the potential of a wife and children all for the sake of Christ and the honor of serving His flock. His vows are powerful symbols of his faith in Jesus Christ and his love for the Church.

Most men today are too weak (myself included) to take such a strong, counter-cultural stand, and we are blessed to have as many righteous men in the priesthood as we do. To my mind, there is no one in the world more worthy of honor and respect than a priest who is faithful to his vows in our age of hedonism. Married priests is exactly the kind of half-assed, short-term solution that one would expect from our all-too-pampered culture. We've got to have it all...