Irish Catholics are torn between a liberal state and a religion that is nearly as old as Jesus Christ himself. The issuse of celibacy among Irish catholic priests has come into play as many priests from the Church of England convert to catholicism after getting married.
Technically, it says nowhere in the bible that celibacy is obligatory, in fact the bible teaches to love one person for the rest of your life untill death do you part. It came about in the 11th century when the Catholic church decided it wanted its priests to leave land to the chuch and not their wives and children. Since this is no longer the issue and many revolutionary things have come about since then (i.e. women getting the vote, abolition of slaves, gay rights being taken into account) surely it is time, that the priests of the Catholic chuch have a choice to marry?
I am not a Catholic so can only see this from an external point of view.
I am not a Catholic but most of my family is and we all strongly feel that the Church needs to reform and adapt in order to survive, with the celibacy issue just being one out of many that need to be addressed. How can, for example, a husband and wife take a (Catholic) priest seriously when discussing their marriage problems with him, when he has never even been married and doesn't really know how it's like in a long-term relationship. I'm all for tradition, it's very important and it needs to be respected but embracing the past is different to staying in the past.
Being a celibate priest is to follow the example of Jesus Christ. A priest is 'persona Christi' on the altar, so it naturally follows that he is as much like Christ as a man can be in his everyday life too. Celibacy is nothing new - and goes back to Jesus - founder of the Catholic Church. To follow Christ and to live in this world, Catholics, including priests, are required to be different from the world. To be a faithful Catholic, one has to be radically different from the world. Jesus told us and showed us this. In fact, it is the essence of Christ's message to His followers. Therefore, to ask the Catholic Church to 'get in line with the times' is similar to asking for a change of essence - a change of nature of the Church. It is, for a Catholic, to misunderstand the nature of your faith. Of course, as a member of this world, it is reasonable to expect priests to blend in. However history tells us that true Catholics have chosen martyrdom rather than follow the crowds - read the stories of the early and recent saints.
Celibacy is still a requirement for Priests in the Western Rites.
Peter, as for Priests not getting taken seriously just because they won't be getting married I have never known that to be the case. They may not have the experience of marriage but most will have experienced love. Some may have even had to choose between marriage and the Priesthood themselves. No two people are the same, so even if Priests were married they would still have to tailor all marriage talks/counselling to the individuals concerned.
It's important to know that nobody in the Catholic Church is forbidden from marriage. A Priest can still get married, but he will have broken the vows taken at his Ordination and will most likely be removed from Parish service.