text: As the priest shortage continues it is becoming more obvious that celibacy has trumped the availability of Mass and the Eucharist to the people of God in the minds of our church leaders.  Unfortunately, given the intransigence of the last 1700 years there will be no hierarchical movement to change this during our lifetimes.  Judging from the past, the future will simply bring more of the same as more and more of the laity feel that their spiritual needs have been minimized by a Church seeking to continue its grasp on sacerdotal control under the guise of the questionable "holiness" of celibacy as opposed to the "holiness" matrimony.  The unspoken and unbroken barricade is not celibacy, because there are married priests. IT IS CONTROL and the refusal and lack of faith and trust in the Spirit to let go just a little of it.