This article has certainly attracted a wide spectrum of responses!  Let me insert one likely scenario.  The widower deacon never expected his wife to die before him, and therefore didn't really give the celibacy requirement after the death of a spouse much thought.  His vow was subjectively weakened by the circumstance of his wife's death.  In such a case, as perhaps Pope John Paul II realized in the case of the deacon whose life I detailed, the Church could have made the pastoral decision, after walking with him on his journey, to dispense him from his vow.