text: In addition to all the fine points Tom Reese makes here, I would add the fact that there are already dozens of married, Roman Catholic priests serving in the church today.  They are former protestant ministers who are ordained as Roman Catholic priests.  One serves here in Scranton PA and lives in the Rectory with his wife and children.  The question this raises is why can a protestant married minister be ordained a Catholic priest, but a Catholic married deacon cannot be ordained to preside at the Eucharist and absolve those who want to confess sin?  And, in truth, we already have a multitude of those who could be ordained.  If we "inquired among the people of God" thousands of good women and men "would be found worthy" to serve the community as priests.  See my "Some of the Best Priests I Know are Women" in U.S. Catholic, April 1993, vol 58 #4, P.30.  The reality is we are not ordaining women.  We are also not ordaining many men.  The two facts may be connected.