Pope Francis issued his Apostolic Letter Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus - or "The Lord Jesus, Clement Judge," by which he introduced reforms to the legal structures of the Church, which deal with questions of marital nullity. The changes announced by Francis modify the procedures for obtaining annulments in two key ways: Eliminating a sometimes lengthy process requiring a second judgment on all annulment decisions and allowing local bishops a so-called "shorter" process to personally judge on cases considered particularly straightforward.