Pope urges bold action to protect the Amazon amid fires

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis urged bishops on Sunday to boldly shake up the status quo as they chart ways to better care for the Amazon and its indigenous people amid threats from forest fires, development and what he called ideological "ashes of fear."

Francis opened a three-week meeting on preserving the rainforest and ministering to its native people as he fended off attacks from conservatives who are opposed to his ecological agenda.

Francis celebrated an opening Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday with global attention newly focused on the forest fires that are devouring the Amazon, which scientists say is a crucial bulwark against global warming.

On hand for the service were indigenous people from several tribes, some with their faces painted and wearing feathered headdresses, as well as more than 180 South American cardinals, bishops and priests, who donned green vestments like the pope.

They traveled to Rome from the region for three weeks of debate at a special synod, or meeting, that has become one of the most controversial of Francis' papacy.

Among the most contentious proposals on the agenda is whether married elders could be ordained priests to address the chronic priest shortages in the region. Currently indigenous Catholics in remote parts of the Amazon can go months without seeing a priest or having a proper Mass.

Another proposal calls for the church to identify new "official ministries" for women, though organizers have made clear that priestly ordination is off the table.

Francis' conservative critics, including a handful of cardinals, have called the proposals "heretical" and an invitation to a "pagan" religion that idolizes nature rather than God. They have mounted an opposition campaign, issuing petitions and holding conferences to...