When it says "perfecting the Parami of renunciation;" if it is perfect, there is no desire for anything. No desire for sense pleasures, no desire, period, because the person is already enlightened. However, I'm not sure any of you are ready for that tonight!
How important is it? It is a personality type thing. If you read in the scriptures, as far as what I have read, it seems to be that there is only one place in all of the scriptures where the Buddha actually interfered with a man getting married. He helped him get enlightened instead! It was one of his cousins. Otherwise the Buddha never said to lay people, "You should ordain, you should be celibate." There is nowhere in the scriptures where I have seen that.
Celibacy can help some people. But it can hinder other people who haven't really got that type of renunciation as their personality trait. Then they are just suppressing, they are building more aversion, they end up not liking what they are doing, so it can interfere. As far as Rosemary and I go, we feel it is a very personal thing that some people can do very easily, many people can't. To force it on anyone, or to put it as an ideal, we don't feel it is important.
However, when we look at the word renunciation, what are we really talking about? What are the most important things to renounce? It is wrong views, in general. To renounce your anger, to renounce your fear. No matter what type of outfit you wear, no matter what type of rules you put on to your life, if you can't renounce your anger, your fear, your jealousy and all, then simply being celibate isn't going to do it.