Bishop McMahon said there is no doctrinal reason preventing them from having wives, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Catholic priests have been required to take a vow of celibacy for centuries, but he argued that this now seemed unfair following the influx of married Anglican clergy.
His comments are set to reignite the debate over whether the Church should end the tradition in a bid to deal with the shortage of priests.
While Bishop McMahon said changing the law would not solve the Church's problems in recruiting men for the priesthood, he said that there would be benefits to such a move.
He claimed that clergy with a family could offer different gifts and it would enable men who did not feel called to celibacy to enter the priesthood.
"There is no reason why priests shouldn't be allowed to marry," he told The Sunday Telegraph.
"It has always been a matter of discipline rather than doctrine."
Priests have had to take a vow of celibacy after a decree from Pope Gregory VII in the eleventh century, which was then confirmed by subsequent Popes in the following century.
Bishop McMahon added: "It is a question of justice for those men who want to be priests and to have a wife. Marriage should not bar them from their vocation but they must be married before they are ordained. The justice issue also applies to communities which could be deprived of the Eucharist because there aren't enough priests."
Married Anglican clergy who were opposed to the introduction of women priests have been allowed to join the Roman Catholic Church. The bishop said this had caused problems with some Catholic priests who found this unfair.
Source: https://www.phatmass.com/phorum/topic/87290-british-bishop-backs-married-priests/
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