Pope Francis avoided a strong current pushing for change in the Church when he refrained from altering the centuries-long discipline of priestly celibacy with his new document on the Amazon synod, Querida Amazonia. Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who was critical of the Amazon synod’s final document, calls Querida Amazonia a document of reconciliation.

In the apostolic exhortation, issued Feb. 12, the Holy Father also resists calls for the formation of a women’s diaconate, saying female ordination would clericalize and thereby diminish women’s valuable role within the Church. Both these propositions and others — which would have represented departures from Church teaching — were endorsed by the participants at last October’s synod on the Amazon. The Pope deserves our gratitude for his refusal to authorize these moves in his apostolic exhortation.

It reminds me somewhat of Pope St. Paul VI, who formed a committee to discuss how contraception would affect the Catholic Church.

When the committee returned a report outlining how the Church could accept artificial means of contraception, Paul’s response, in the face of heavy criticism, was Humanae Vitae, which rejected contraception outright.

However, as we have seen in the intervening years, there are still some in the Church who promote the erroneous conclusion that a Catholic in good conscience may use contraception.

And, likewise, despite Pope Francis’ affirmation of the priesthood in the Latin Church and the roles of women in it, you can be sure that there are some who won’t take No for an answer.

Our call is always to stay the course and guard the faith that has been handed down to us in apostolic tradition and to pray for the Church to be a constant beacon of truth.

In this instance, we offer prayers of gratitude for the safeguarding of the sacrament of holy orders and prayers of petition that Pope Francis’ call for an authentic teaching of the faith in the Amazon be the beginning of a new flourishing there.

God bless you!