LIST OF REASONS

INTRO : Catholic priests are known for their life of celibacy. Records however, show that the life of celibacy that the priests live is a sheer convention rather than a hard-cast dogma of Catholic Church. What this means is that a radical Pope can change it tomorrow. The celibate life of Catholic priests is not as old as the Church. St. Peter, the first Pope of the Church was a married man;  and the apostles that Jesus chose were, for the most part, married men. The tide began to turn against marriage in 325 AD, in the Council of Nicea which decreed that after ordination a priest could not marry.  This decree hints the fact that marriages which predated the ordinations were allowed. Thus, in 385 AD,  Pope Siricius left his wife (he married a wife before his ordination) in order to become Pope. In an obverse case, Pope Benedict IX in 1045 AD dispensed himself from celibacy and resigned in order to marry (his was not lucky marrying before his ordination...