This would seem to indicate that there is no compelling spiritual reason for priests being celibate, but that the reasons for it are largely political. After all, for the first 800 years or so the church did just fine with married priests.

Considering this, and how compulsory priestly celibacy contributes to the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church, it would seem only reasonable to, once again, allow Catholic priests to marry if they wish to.

The fact that Rome is resisting this for all it is worth, shows that the Catholic church still cares more about the power it can wield than the welfare of its faithful. Of course this is how the Catholic church has always been. For most of its long history, it has controlled people, and society, through guilt and fear. So much is this so, that our society to this day is underpinned by this guilt and fear, and by the us-and-them attitude that some people are important and others are not, that the church, both Protestant and Catholic, has ingrained in us. After all, if it's OK for God to save some, and consign others to everlasting punishment in hell, then surely its OK for us to throw the uncooperative, ungrateful poor into prison and let them rot?

Before we can really resolve the sexual abuse scandal, we need to understand how deeply corrupt the church really is, and begin to cut out and replace the rot in its very foundation. It's impossible to build a sound structure on a rotten foundation, but that is what the church is attempting to do with its current half-baked attempts to rein in the epidemic of sexual abuse perpetrated by its priests. We should not be taken in for a moment by this sham.

If you would like to understand this rottenness underpinning both church and society, and gain insight into how it could be corrected, I would suggest reading In Search of the Loving God by Mark Mason. You can find out a lot about this book, and even read three complete chapters from it, at its website at: