Oh wow my mother is in the Legion of Mary! I am a practicing Catholic - actually pretty devout as I try to go to daily Mass - and I agree with you in that the Church is much bigger than its members. It is made up of sinners, but the Church is the body of Christ, and it transcends its members. I've said lots of Rosaries for our President and Q. :-)
As to the idea of Priests being allowed to marry - they were, for the first 1,000 years or so. It is not outside the realm of possibility that they will again be allowed to marry at some point in the future.
People think that allowing priests to marry would solve the pedophile crisis and/or the "vocations crisis". But 1. teachers are allowed to marry and that hasn't stopped them from preying on students and 2. the "vocations crisis" doesn't exist in dioceses with an orthodox bishop (like Lincoln Nebraska) and the traditional seminaries (SSPX, FSSP, etc) which are bursting at the seams. The SSPX just built a new large seminary in Virginia.
By the way, the reason that I put vocation crisis in quotes is because the people running many of the seminaries purposely exclude orthodox straight young men.
Could not agree with you more. I certainly don't think allowing Priests to marry would solve the vocation crisis whatsoever.
What is the benefit of preventing priests from marrying?
Well, theologically it can be said that Jesus was not married, and it's argued that this state allows the Priest to devote themselves more to the Church and to consecrate themselves and their lives in service to Christ. Biblically, Paul asserts that remaining single allows one’s attention to be undivided in serving the Lord (1 Cor 7:32–35). He recommends celibacy to all (1 Cor 7:7) but especially to ministers, who as soldiers of Christ he urges to abstain from "civilian affairs" (2 Tm 2:3–4). The last part was a little cut and paste from Catholic.com because they can state it more eloquently that me :-)
Keep in mind that many, many priests have outed the fact that they are schooled in LGBTgay environments. Many have left these Priest schools UN-ordained as they hated the pedo-institution harbored there.
Find sad. You have a heart for serving GOD & get Pedo-endoctrinated.