Annulment question

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ktipple

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I am a divorced Catholic and have not started the annulment process yet. I was recently informed that my ex husband may have remarried in the Catholic Church in the Phillipines (I am in the US). He would have no way to locate me as I disappeared for safety reasons after the divorce, although he does have my parents address. Could he have proceeded with the annulment without me? How would I find out if my marriage has already been annulled? Who should I contact to find out?
 
ktipple said:
He would have no way to locate me as I disappeared for safety reasons after the divorce, although he does have my parents address. Could he have proceeded with the annulment without me?
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Yes. He could have proceeded without you if you could not be located. The tribunal will typically want testimony from both spouses, but if the tribunal could not locate you then they would proceed without you.
ktipple said:
How would I find out if my marriage has already been annulled? Who should I contact to find out?
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You, or your diocesan chancery office where you currently live, should contact the chancery office in the diocese in the Philippines. If there is a decree of nullity, it will be on file there.

You can also contact the parish where you were baptized and request your sacramental records. What SHOULD happen when a decree of nullity is issued is that the record is sent to both husband and wife’s baptismal parish where it is recorded in the sacramental record. Sometimes that doesn’t happen for whatever reason, so the diocesan tribunal records should also be checked.
 
Where did your marriage to your ex-husband take place?
 
Thank you 1ke, that definitely gives me direction on how to proceed!
 
My local diocese has since changed, should I contact the diocese where we were married or where I currently live? Thank you so much for your help!
 
ktipple said:
My local diocese has since changed, should I contact the diocese where we were married or where I currently live? Thank you so much for your help!
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Start with your baptismal parish. Ask for your records.

If no notation of a decree of nullity is on your sacramental records, contact the diocese in which you were married, they may have received notice of the decree of nullity.

If they don’t have it, contact the diocese in the Philippines in which your ex was married or the parish church in which he married.
 
And if that doesn’t work, contact the diocese (or if more than one, all of them) in which your husband at one point or another may have resided long enough to file.

So if you were baptized in a diocese in Illinois; married on a diocese in Pennsylvania, and he lived in a diocese in Massachusetts and one in Florida, start the process of checking them all.

I say this because people are far more mobile now than they were 50 years ago; and you do not mention when you were divorced. Normally it takes two or more years to go through the process of obtaining a decree of nullity; whether or not he resided (or indicated residence in) a diocese long enough to accomplish the process may not be the question, if they thought he was residing there.
 
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