Cardinal Oswald Gracias, J.C.D., of India (appointed cardinal by Benedict) on married priests: "It's open." "Following present canon law, there's a possibility" that Holy See can grant a "dispensation" to a married man to be ordained priest. Bishops need to petition Vatican.

Source: LifeSiteNews (25 Feb 2020) (accessed 25 May 2020)

Excerpt:

The cardinal from South Asia stresses in this new interview with the National Catholic Reporter that the Pope was under many “pressures” and that there are “people who do not want any change,” while at the same time others “want overnight changes.” 

“He's got to carry everybody with him,” Gracias explains, also in light of the fact that the Pope seeks “synodality.” In order to take everybody along, the cardinal adds, “we go slower than we would like to go because of that.” 

Commenting on Querida Amazonia, Gracias calls it “very clever” that the Pope is “endorsing the final document.” 

“Therefore the final document remains a valid reference point,” he explains. With regard to the question of the married priests, that means for the prelate that “it's open.” 

“He's not excluded any part of the final document – he's not excluded any part of it,” he states.

Gracias also comes back in this new interview to a proposal he himself had made during last year's Amazon Synod. “I had suggested in my intervention that, following present canon law, there's a possibility,” that the Holy See can grant “a dispensation” in the case of a married man who wishes to become a priest. Accordingly, the cardinal had then suggested that Amazon bishops, or groups of them, could petition the Vatican to grant them such a dispensation. Since the Pope, in his recent exhortation, did not address this matter directly, this possibility still is “open,” also in light of the Pope's “endorsing the [final] document.