Over two hundred bishops, mostly from the Amazon, are in Rome to debate the future of the Catholic Church in the vast region. They will discuss a contentious proposal to ordain married men in an attempt to bridge the shortage of priests.
The move, which would break centuries of tradition would help to alleviate the shortage of clergymen but has been the focus of a backlash by traditionalist Catholic bishops.
Pope Francis has previously indicated that he is open to the idea.
The German Catholic Church in particular, which has an influential progressive wing, has been hotly debating the subject.
The men in question include priests such as deacon Shainkiam Yampik working in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon helping the 28 clergymen who serve a region the size of Panama to bring the eucharist to people who can attend mass only a couple of times a year.
Church rules forbid him to say Mass. Shainkiam, who is a tribal elder with 10 grown children, is regarded by local church leaders as "a proven Catholic man".
Many of the 200-plus bishops gathering for a three-week synod on the Amazon want to ordain people like Shainkiam.
Pope Francis has the final decision. He said that some Church leaders risked becoming "bureaucrats, instead of shepherds" and urged them rekindle the fire of God's gift by being open to change.
But Conservative opponents fear that a decision to ordain married men as priests in the Amazon would be a doctrinal Trojan horse which would then spread the practice to the West and other parts of the world.
But that is a prospect which mass-goers here in Donnybrook in Dublin seemed to favour.
The synod, which runs until 27 October, will also reflect on making official roles for women.
Separately, Pope Francis has also condemned the destructive "interests" he blamed for the fires that have devastated Amazon.
"The fire set by interests that destroy, like the fire that recently devastated Amazonia, is not the fire of the Gospel," he said before the bishops from the nine countries of the pan-Amazonian region and representatives of indigenous peoples.
"The fire of God is warmth that attracts and gathers into unity. It is fed by sharing, not by profits.
"The fire that destroys, on the other hand, blazes up when people want to promote only their own ideas, form their own group, wipe out differences in the attempt to make everyone and everything uniform."
The global spotlight has recently been on the world's largest rainforest, which is vital for the planet but is suffering from its worst outbreak of fires in years, due in part to an acceleration in deforestation.
Additional Reporting AFP/Reuters
