Members of the Roman Catholic Church will no longer be forced to undergo a long and costly process in order to obtain a marriage annulment. Instead, on Tuesday Pope Francis announced a new revised law that will fast-track the procedure and drastically cut the cost starting in December, reports Reuters.

Although marriage will still be considered as a permanent sacrament within the Catholic Church, there will now be a faster and simpler process for couples seeking a marriage annulment, which is a ruling that states that a marriage contract was fundamentally flawed from the start and therefore invalid in the eyes of the church.

Currently, Catholics can get their marriage annulled if certain conditions are not being met like free choice, psychological maturity and willingness to have children. However, the cumbersome process often took years to complete and hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. Without an annulment, Catholics who divorce and then remarry are consider adulterers and are ineligible to take part in some sacraments like Holy Communion.

Now, under the Vatican's new law, bishops can directly grant the annulments in certain circumstances like spousal abuse or infidelity. Couples will also no longer be subjected to a second review by a cleric in order to have their marriage nullified. And lastly, the process will be free of charge, except for a nominal fee for administrative costs and would be completed within 45 days.

"This move is in accord with the Pope's oft-repeated image of the church as a 'field hospital' that goes out to meet people where they are most in need, and then to treat their most serious wounds first -- rather than stay at home and wait for people to come to them," said the Rev. James Bretzke, an expert on papal affairs at Boston College.

In the document, Francis also emphasized that all marriages will be consider an indissoluble union.