[quote:3555xmx7]I think the family of the priest would feel pressure since they would be in the “lime-light” and might think everything has to be perfect in the way they act.[/quote:3555xmx7]

Yeah, that’s one thing I did not consider when thinking about this topic.

It’s kind of like political leaders though too – their families are under a lot of scrutiny if one of them happens to “screw up.”

[quote:3555xmx7]Some issues of balance between devoting oneself to the church and devoting oneself to his wife and children might also surface. [/quote:3555xmx7]

To me, this brings up the issue of the role of a priest. Should he be the parish administrator too or should he be in a role that is more strictly dealing with “delivering” the sacraments? I think priests need to have more free time to do pastoral things such as counseling and talking with people and doing mass rather than keeping tabs on eveything in the parish. I think parishes should spread out the workload and not leave it all on the priest.

Maybe, if they consider having optional celibacy they could consider having married priests as only associate ministers. That way there would still be the pastor, not married, but able to devote all of his time to his church instead of balancing between a family and the church. The associate ministers would have less of a role obviously, but would still be priests.