Pope Francis has appointed a special commission to study a possible simplification of the process of obtaining marriage annulments.
The Vatican announced on September 22 that the Pope had asked the commission to “focus on the preparation of a proposal for the reform of the marriage annulment process, seeking to simplify and streamline the procedure, while safeguarding the principle of the indissoluble nature of marriage.”
The Vatican press office said that Pope Francis had made the decision to institute this special commission nearly a month ago. The announcement, however, came just two weeks before the opening of an extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops. Questions about annulment and remarriage have dominated public discussions in the weeks leading up to the Synod meeting.
The special commission will be chaired by Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto, the dean of the tribunal of the Roman Rota. The bishops on the commission are Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmiero, the president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts (which is the Vatican’s top body for canon-law issues); Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladario, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (which handles doctrinal issues); and Bishop Dimitri Salachas of the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church. The remaining members of the commission are officials of Vatican canonical tribunals and experts on canon law.
The Vatican announcement indicated that the commission has been asked to begin its work as soon as possible.
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