Annulment Questionnaire Differences

[Karen_Feenstra]

I recently applied for an annulment. I live in the United Kingdom but was married and divorced in South Africa approximately 21 years ago. The process started in the UK, but the South African diocese that manages annulments has to manage the process. I completed the UK questionnaire - but on getting the Souh African questionnaire found that there were differences. Surely in the interest of modernising the Catholic church the questionnaire should be the same WW. It was almost as if I was going back in time with the SA questionnaire vs the UK questionnaire. There were of course significant similarities - however then I was requested to answer additional questions post submission, post interview and post interviews of all witnesses. Is there any reason why there are differences in the questions country to country?

 

[jilly4ski]

I recently applied for an annulment. I live in the United Kingdom but was married and divorced in South Africa approximately 21 years ago. The process started in the UK, but the South African diocese that manages annulments has to manage the process. I completed the UK questionnaire - but on getting the Souh African questionnaire found that there were differences. Surely in the interest of modernising the Catholic church the questionnaire should be the same WW. It was almost as if I was going back in time with the SA questionnaire vs the UK questionnaire. There were of course significant similarities - however then I was requested to answer additional questions post submission, post interview and post interviews of all witnesses. Is there any reason why there are differences in the questions country to country?

For the same reason courts in different states have different rules. Think of it this way, all the states in the US have a common law system and they are all based off English common law, plus we have a federal law system. Yet, despite having similar or even the same law (as federal law is) the courts all have their own rules. One court will allow motions and briefs to be as long as you want, and some will limit page numbers to 20, or another page limit. Some will allow a line of questioning and some will not.

Likewise, Catholic dioceses are independent, despite applying the same law. They have a jurisdiction over the people in their area, and thus administer their diocese and the processes under their jurisdiction with rules that work for them. Dioceses are different sizes, with different capital needs, thus rules will differ between dioceses depending on these factors.

 

[Karen_Feenstra]

I get this, but we are not talking about a legal system here. We are talking about almost a different view of Catholicism one region another. Almost as of a whole continent has not caught up with the rest of the world. This is about a belief system - not a legal system.

 

[jilly4ski]

I get this, but we are not talking about a legal system here. We are talking about almost a different view of Catholicism one region another. Almost as of a whole continent has not caught up with the rest of the world. This is about a belief system - not a legal system.

Actually it is a legal system. A system of administering the Church law and ordering religious life and people. Annulments are defined in Canon law. Thus like a court limits pages submitted because they are overbooked, one dioceses might have streamlined their questionnaire process to limit how much their overbooked tribunal has to read. While another diocese, isn’t as overbooked, can take its time ask more questions (evidence). The annulment process is a juridical process, so you have two tribunals or courts trying to get the evidence they need to make a judgement on the annulment. There is going to be differences in how they do things.

 

[CarolNoel]

Don’t have any words of wisdom, but just want to wish you luck and a good outcome with the annulment.

 

[EvelynEVF]

There are huge differences between dioceses in the USA as well. I have a friend who petitioned in one diocese and her sole testimony was a couple hours worth of face-to-face interview. My diocese uses a questionnaire with 87 questions for the petitioner and respondent, and 26 for the witnesses. It was explained to me, and I told my witnesses, that these are not all mandatory like an essay test in school. They are prompts for useful information, and you answer what you can. In a live interview, a skilled interviewer can follow the information trail and get what s/he needs. On paper, they have to ask everything up front since there may or may not be personal followup.

I figure they are just different ways of seeking the same information.