The Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham, Malcolm McMahon, said there is no doctrinal reason preventing them from having wives.

Roman Catholic priests have been required to take a vow of celibacy for centuries, but Bishop McMahon says this now seems unfair following the influx of married Anglican clergy.

His comments are set to reignite the debate over whether the Catholic church should end the tradition in a bid to deal with the shortage of priests.

Pope Benedict XVI blocked moves to allow Catholic clergy to wed when he reaffirmed the value of celibacy in 2006, and an archbishop has been excommunicated for ordaining four married men as priests.

While Bishop McMahon said changing the law would not solve the church's problems in recruiting men for the priesthood, he said there would be benefits to such a move.

He claimed that clergy with a family could offer different gifts, and that would enable men who don't 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.

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