The canonical requirement of celibacy for priests in the Western Church is not forced upon anyone. In a proper sense, priests are men who freely choose celibacy “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” After all, it is the vow or promise of celibacy that comes first, not ordination.
The Eastern churches have a different canonical custom that allows married men to be ordained to the priesthood, but once they are ordained they may not marry, even in the event of the death of the spouse. Still, many candidates for the priesthood in the East freely choose celibacy. All bishops in the East are consecrated from the ranks of the monks, who are all celibate. The harmoniously different canonical customs of both East and West not only show a deep interconnection between celibacy and the priesthood, they also bear witness to the great freedom of celibacy.
In light of this, doing away with the canonical discipline of priestly celibacy in the West would not solve the problem of the shortage of priests. In the Eastern church, where married men are accepted as priests, there are shortages. Furthermore, doing away with the canonical discipline of priestly celibacy would involve the additional problem of divorced priests. Unfortunately, this is something not unknown in Protestant churches with their married ministers.
The priest shortage is a problem of faith, not a result of the discipline of celibacy. These faith problems manifest themselves in the serious misunderstanding of the truth and meaning of human sexuality and, consequently, a serious drop in the world’s birthrates because of contraception, sterilization, and abortion. When human sexuality is not properly understood in its totality of the gift of oneself, celibacy is also misunderstood. In light of today’s severe crisis in the area of sexuality, we need the witness of celibacy all the more.
"Celibacy Is a Gift "
By Greg Mockeridge
catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0102fea5.asp