Pope Francis declined Wednesday to approve the ordination of married men to address the priest shortage in the Amazon, sidestepping a fraught issue that has dominated debate in the Catholic Church and even involved retired Pope Benedict XVI.

Francis, in the eagerly awaited document, Querida Amazonia or Beloved Amazon, did not refer to the recommendations by Amazonian bishops to consider the ordination of married men as priests or women as deacons. Rather, the pope urged bishops to pray for more priestly vocations and to send missionaries to a region where faithful Catholics in remote areas can go months or even years without Mass.

Some saw the following passage as giving the green light to married priests:

Considering that legitimate diversity does not harm the communion and unity of the Church, but rather expresses and serves it (cf. LG13; OE 6), witness the plurality of existing rites and disciplines, we propose that criteria and dispositions be established by the competent authority, within the framework of Lumen Gentium 26, to ordain as priests suitable and respected men of the community with a legitimately constituted and stable family, who have had a fruitful permanent diaconate and receive an adequate formation for the priesthood, in order to sustain the life of the Christian community through the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the Sacraments in the most remote areas of the Amazon region. [Emphasis added]

And indeed the Pope has said that his exhortation isn’t the final say in the matter:

“He said, ‘You can’t just meet once and then say, “Oh, we have all the answers,” but the conversation continues,'” the bishop said. “And so, he said, ‘What we did is we raised these issues, and now we have to deal with them,'” continuing to invoke the Holy Spirit and discern the path for the future.

Quoting poetry as frequently as past papal teachings, Francis addressed the document to all peoples of the world “to help awaken their affection and concern for that land which is also ours and to invite them to value it and acknowledge it as a sacred mystery.”

The Amazon Synod has created much controversy as the liberal Pope allowed pagan rituals on the Vatican grounds.