So the key to Christian virginity, Christian celibacy, is that it must pass this test of fertility. It needs to be thus, otherwise a priest s celibacy will only seem to be a crippling burden, because God made every boy to grow up to be a father, and every man needs to find a way to be that. As a priest lives out the mystery of fruitful virginity in his own life, he is a witness to all the Christian fathers in their physical paternity. For them, too, it is not enough to engender a child physically, but they need to be spiritual fathers for the children entrusted to them. When people beget children physically but fail to live out the spiritual dimension of their parenting, I think we judge them to have failed in their vocation.
Every parent needs to be a spiritual father or mother.
It is amazing that on the continuum of thought on celibacy, some people see celibacy as a fulfillment of human sexuality and others as an aberration of sexuality. If you hold such an opinion, then you would have to recognize the corollary that a husband cannot be faithful to his wife while they are not able to share sexual intimacy. We know for example, that if his wife were gravely ill, a husband could express his love, his gift of self, in many ways, through his attentiveness, care, and concern. There are people who from a pragmatic point of view would say that we could have more priests if we did not observe strictly this discipline of celibacy. Now, it s good to have more priests only insofar as this advances the Church s mission.