Very interesting. In contemporary culture, where atheism seems to be the rule and not the exception, I think the Catholic Church has become the laughing stock (or at least the poster boy for shameful practices) of organized religion. I can think of nothing else that screams so adamantly for reform.. drastic reform. Allowing priests to wed would be a step in the right direction, though lots more positive change than just this will be necessary.
Obviously, the image of "holyness" personified by the Catholic priest has been severely tarnished by all the much-deserved bad press. Instead of priests being removed from the sins of "humans," they appear to commonly stoop to committing acts more heinous than most sins that those who confess to them are guilty of. So much for the notion of divinity, I guess.
The world today is a far cry from Europe over hundreds (for the life of me, I can't remember if the CC was formed more or les than 1,000 years ago...
) of years ago. The world around the Catholic Church has changed substantially. It is time that the Church's practices be flexible enough to better serve those who of the faith, as well as those of the who represent it.