Reply #33: That's the way I always understood it.

[jeepnstein]

I had a nice leisurely lunch with a scholar during a stay in Rome once. He pretty much admitted that the Vatican put in the celibacy rule to protect Church assets from messy estate cases. The problem is now the church can't bring itself to fix the mess it created. That kind of thing happens when you let pride stand in the way of a thorough reading of Scripture.

Oh well, I'm not Catholic so I don't really have a dog in that fight.