Pope orders review designed to simplify annulment process

Pope Francis has ordered a review designed to simplify the Church’s procedures for annulments, the Vatican said, a move that could make it easier for Catholics to end marriages.

A statement said Francis had appointed an 11-member commission of canon lawyers and theologians to propose reform of the process, “seeking to simplify and streamline it while safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of marriage”.

An annulment, formally known as a “decree of nullity”, is a ruling that a marriage was not valid in the first place according to Church law because certain pre-requisites, such as free will, psychological maturity and openness to having children, were lacking.