Do the majority of Catholic priests believe that the rules of the Catholic Church should be eased to allow them to marry?

I'm pretty sure no one knows the answer to that question.

I'm pretty sure no multi-national Catholic-wide statistically-significant survey of that sort has been undertaken

- because it would be quite expensive

- because one might expect that - for religious reasons - many priests would not wish to voice their personal feelings on the matter even if anonymity was guaranteed

Yes, as long as they can marry 12 year old boys.

No. Some do, but most of them choose the priesthood understanding the value of forgoing marriage for a greater good. Matthew 19:12

If not, they should

The gay ones don't care.

No. There will always be a need for celibate priests. With a married guy his focus should be on his family first. For the priest his focus should be on the greater community. For the first 1000 yeas + of Christianity priests were allowed to marry, but they were not as dedicated as those under celibacy. But I think that should be a personal decision, not a mandate. With the shortage of priests today I can see a possibility of a "part-time" priest who would be married, have his own residence, and have a job much like deacons today.

Not so much eased as reversed, really... It wasn't until the 2nd Lateran Council (1139) that priests were prohibited from marrying. In the early church, it was a non-issue.

It was also the 4th Lateran Council (1215) that prohibited same-sex marriages (previously, they had been accepted by the Church) and enacted sodomy laws.

Those 12th-16th century Lateran Councils were basically a bunch of old men who cared way too much about the sex lives of others. Anyway, I have no clue how Catholic priests feel about it now (I'd assume most are in favor of it... anything that gives them some release other than kids), but if the current rule were repealed and if priests were to marry, it would hardly be without historical precedent.

I googled, "average age of a priest" and though it was once 35, today, it's 63. Well, it was 63 in 2009. It may be older now if the trend continued. So... Take that for whatever it may mean on the idea of marriage to them.

And yes, I know they got the headline wrong. That's Georgetown University for you, I guess.