One of those traditions is allowing priests to marry. Marriage must precede ordination.

So if David has in fact met one or more married men who have said that they were former priests… Some priests have simply walked away from the Catholic Church entirely, and have married outside the Church without obtaining (or often without even seeking) permission from their superiors.

While individual circumstances can vary, their status is often akin to that of a soldier who has “gone AWOL.” Granted, a cleric– deacon, priest, or bishop– may be freed from the clerical state and dispensed from the promise of celibacy by the proper authority.

So, central to a theology that allows a priest to leave the priesthood is the understanding that the Church has no divine power, only human power, which is bad enough when in the hands of power hungry clerics. The Western or Roman Catholic Church has the rule of celibacy, but the Eastern Catholic Churches, who are in union with Rome, have always had married priests.

Above all, the priesthood demands conformity to Christ and love for His holy people.

In … Some will see the return of married priests as a victory over harsh Catholic rules – maybe in time it will be – but for men who will be asked to return now, it is an affront to their marriages. No one, not even the Pope when speaking "ex cathedra" is infallible.

Only God is infallible.

In the celibate world, it may be happy but constrained — by the watchful eyes of parishioners and superiors, by public expectation, by personal feelings of … One clarification to understand is that while married men can be ordained priests, it is never permitted for an ordained priest to get married. Some estimates place the number of married priests at around 20% of all Catholic priests in the world. This would mean that 20% of all Catholic priests are officially and legally married, even though celibacy continues to be a requirement. He may no longer have the obligations or the privileges to function as a cleric, but nevertheless he remains a cleric.

This means that practically speaking, while a priest can receive permission to leave the active priesthood, he ordinarily will not receive permission to marry.