EKPOMA REVIEW

Pope Francis issued the Motu Proprio - Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus on August 15, 2015, and it became effective on December 8, 2015. In this document the Holy Father reformed the procedure for declaration of marriage nullity. The document reordered and abrogated some canons in the 1983 Code of Canon Law. After the promulgation of this new law, some commentators have come to argue that the Holy Father has just made it possible to declare marriages null in the Catholic Church without the due processes being followed. Some media outlets have even tagged it as the new simpli?ed way of getting a divorce in the Catholic church. Some Catholics are confused about the changes that have been made. Some wonder whether it has not completely eroded the traditional teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. It is in the light of these concerns that our research critically examined the Apostolic Constitution to identify some of the changes established and the implication for the understanding of the procedural law that all marriage tribunals are to strictly observed. In this paper, we brought out what is new and what has been reordered. We also stated the fact that the new law requires more direct involvement of the

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