From the Philadelphia Examiner-
If there were a Top 10 list of Catholic cultural touchstones, surely “Catholic priests can't get married” would be listed somewhere in the top five (if not No. 1). But did you know that it isn't always true?
Among the newest priests in the Diocese of Grand Island, which covers much of western and north-central Nebraska, is the Rev. Sidney Bruggeman. He was an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) until 1995, when he, his wife and their four children all joined the Catholic Church. With his ordination on June 5, Father Bruggeman became Nebraska's only married priest in the Catholic Church's dominant Roman Rite.
Why, then, didn't that Catholic priest in Florida (the Rev. Alberto Cutie) stay in the priesthood despite his relationship with a girlfriend? Indeed, why should ordination be denied to any married Catholic layman? (A discussion of women's ordination will have to wait for a future essay.)
The answer begins in the New Testament: “And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever” (Matthew 8:14).
Yes, the apostle whom Catholics consider the first pope was married! In fact, the Catholic Church has included married clergy, in some of the various churches under the jurisdiction of the pope, from Peter's day to now. Thus, before he became Pope Benedict XVI, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told Peter Seewald in their 1997 interview book Salt of the Earth that celibacy “is not a dogma. It is a form of life that has grown up in the Church."
More here-
http://www.examiner.com/x-10165-Omaha-Catholic-Examiner~y2009m6d16-A-married-Catholic-priest-Nebraska-ordination-shows-when-its-possible
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