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  The usual process whereby a person discerns a call to priesthood and then tries to determine whether he can live in celibacy, let alone whether he is called to celibacy, is backwards. Since the church requires celibacy, one must first be aware of and respond to that call -- because it is only from among those called to celibacy that the (Latin) church will choose its priests. While some small percentage of persons is genuinely called to celibacy, the notion that (nearly) 100% of Catholic priests are to be found among them (and only among the half of them who are male) is preposterous. There is little if any spiritual value or eschatological witness to be derived from mandatory celibacy. The “mandatory” aspect strips the spiritual value from it and reduces it to little more than an instrument of power and control of bishops over priests.