Vatican City — Pope Francis has for now rejected a landmark proposal by bishops to allow the ordination of married men in remote areas underserved by priests, a potentially momentous change that conservatives had warned could set the Roman Catholic Church on a path toward lifting priestly celibacy and weakening church traditions.

The decision, in a papal letter made public on Wednesday, was welcomed by conservatives, but it was a major setback for many of the Catholics who see Francis as their best hope for bringing fundamental change to the church.

With the church facing a shortage of priests and increasing competition from evangelicals in many countries, the idea of opening up the priesthood to married men had held broad appeal for liberals worried about the church’s future.

Coming seven years into Francis’ papacy, his decision also raised the question of whether his promotion of discussing once-taboo issues is resulting in a pontificate that is largely talk.

“It’s difficult to reform a longstanding global institution,” said Marco Marzano, the author of “The Immobile Church: Francis and the Missed Revolution,” who called it “improbable” that Francis could deliver on all the changes his supporters hoped for. For liberals, he said, “There has been an exaggerated optimism.”

His closest advisers have acknowledged that the pope’s impact has waned on the global stage, especially on core issues like immigration and the environment. His legacy, they have said, will be inside the church, where his authority is absolute.

But the pope’s refusal to allow married priests came as a relief to conservatives, many of whom have come to see Francis and his emphasis on a more pastoral and inclusive church as a grave threat to the rules, orthodoxy and traditions of the faith. Some interpreted the pope’s decision as an olive branch to conservatives.

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who was fired as the church’s top doctrinal watchdog by Francis in 2017 and has emerged as one of his most prominent conservative critics, welcomed the letter as a “document of reconciliation.”

“This text could also have the reconciling effect of reducing internal church factions, ideological fixations and the danger of inner emigration or open resistance,” Cardinal Müller, of Germany, wrote on Wednesday.

The recommendation to allow married priests in remote areas was approved by more than two-thirds of the voting members who attended a church leaders’ summit on the Amazon region in October.

Francis had in the past expressed openness on the subject, and had often emphasized his desire to empower bishops around the world, to listen to their needs and create a less top-down church.

But the proposal to ordain married men in the Amazon region, where the shortage of priests is dire, set off a polarizing debate.

Progressives said it was high time the church recognized reality and the demands of the faithful; conservatives called the idea a threat to the priesthood, and warned that married priests would follow everywhere, including Europe.

Even the pope’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, put a finger on the scale, arguing for priestly celibacy in a rare intercession that highlighted the hardening of liberal and conservative camps that has come to define Francis’ papacy.

Despite expectations, Francis backed off.

In his letter, which took the form of a 94-page booklet and has the power of church teaching, Francis notably made no mention of ordaining married men in good standing or elevating to the priesthood married deacons, a lower clerical rank that does not require celibacy.