Priests were allowed to marry at first

[Aramis]

Actually a bishop is pretty limited in where he can send a priest, mostly within his diocese.

Also things are not done as they were in the past. There is more dialogue in assignments, even within religious orders/communites.

That has as much to do with there being no lands not part of a diocese anymore as anything else, tho’.

St. Damien of Molokai, for example, was sent on mission to Hawaii. While there was a bishop in Hawaii, from whom Fr. Damien received ordination and faculties, he was sent to fill a need. I find it hard to think that a married priest would make the sacrifices St Damien did for his congregation. It’s hard to think that even a celibate priest might.

A bishop would be unlikely to let a married cleric go to Molokai as he did; the Bishop wasn’t too thrilled to send Fr. Damien, either… but he took up his mission on Molokai, and was a comfort to the far too many incarcerated at Kalaupapa for having Hansen’s Disease.