The priest who founded the Knock Marriage Bureau nearly 40 years ago has claimed the Catholic Church's celibacy rule is having a negative emotional impact on many priests in modern Ireland who are "totally lonely, longing for human relationships".
Some priests are involved in relationships with women despite their commitment to celibacy, according to Fr Michael Keane.
He said this was unfair to the women involved as it was "taking up their time".
Fr Keane (81), who retired last year as director of the Knock Marriage Bureau, which has been responsible for more than 800 marriages since its inception in 1968, says he has a great deal of sympathy for priests who fall in love.
"They haven't done anything tremendously wrong except to fall in love. Some people regard them as traitors but I think that's unfair," Fr Keane said yesterday.
"Celibacy should not be compulsory. St Peter was married. It should be left to the priests themselves whether they want to get married or not.
"Deprived of relationships with females, some priests are becoming like dried out prunes emotionally as a result." He said many priests in Ireland nowadays are longing for relationships with members of the opposite sex.
"All they have to look forward to is maybe getting a parish sometime. That is no compensation for having your own children and watching them growing up." Imposed celibacy was unnatural and perhaps a factor in some child sexual abuse involving clerics, he claimed.