Annulment Stats....Looking for data

[Vico]

Annulment statistics are published every year in the Studia Canonica magazine. Tribunals have to submit their stats every year.
Also, Lack of Form cases are not annulments.

You caused me to look up documentary cases. The two types of cases that meet the criteria of documentary cases are Lack of Form and Ligamen (prior bond).

 

[YADA]

Annulment stats are very interesting and it is too bad that there is not some 'meaty; statistical data available.

One factor that seems to be missed in the total numbers of annulments sought, annulments granted - which is about the sum total of the data you see publised as noted in an earlier post - is that non-catholic marriages are include in those totals.

For example two non catholics can marry, divorce and one or both may remarry a non-catholic … at some later time - one of those non-catholics seeks to become a catholic - that person must submit their first marriage for annulment to determine if their present marriage is valid - and if both of them are seeking entrance into the church and if both of them had been married before then both would need to seek annulments.

We tend to think of annulments as purely a catholic issue between 2 catholics -that is simply not the case …

The USA is a big country - large population with a variety of faith traditions - we are the melting pot remember?

Also - I believe that it has a significant number of adult initiations each year. Plus it has a large number of interfaith marriages - perhaps more so than many countries… all of these factor into the number of annulments …

Food for thought

 

[JRKH]

Annulment stats are very interesting and it is too bad that there is not some 'meaty; statistical data available.

Yes - and to be honest, I don’t know if the statistics that ARE gathered have any real detail to them…

One factor that seems to be missed in the total numbers of annulments sought, annulments granted - which is about the sum total of the data you see publised as noted in an earlier post - is that non-catholic marriages are include in those totals.

For example two non catholics can marry, divorce and one or both may remarry a non-catholic … at some later time - one of those non-catholics seeks to become a catholic - that person must submit their first marriage for annulment to determine if their present marriage is valid - and if both of them are seeking entrance into the church and if both of them had been married before then both would need to seek annulments.

We tend to think of annulments as purely a catholic issue between 2 catholics -that is simply not the case …

The USA is a big country - large population with a variety of faith traditions - we are the melting pot remember?

Also - I believe that it has a significant number of adult initiations each year. Plus it has a large number of interfaith marriages - perhaps more so than many countries… all of these factor into the number of annulments …

Food for thought

Good point and in my various reading it seems that these types of cases make up roughly 1/3 of all cases in a given year.
From what I understand these types of cases are generally pretty straight forward and take relatively little time to resolve.
It’s the other 2/3 of cases that I believe contain the “meat” of what can be gleaned from the tribunals. If this meat can be captured, even in a rough way, and fed back into the system at the point where it is most needed - pre-cana and marriage counseling - It might serve to reduce the numbers of Catholic marriages breaking up and consequently the numbers of annulment cases overall…

Peace
James

 

[YADA]

Yes - and to be honest, I don’t know if the statistics that ARE gathered have any real detail to them…

Good point and in my various reading it seems that these types of cases make up roughly 1/3 of all cases in a given year.
From what I understand these types of cases are generally pretty straight forward and take relatively little time to resolve.
It’s the other 2/3 of cases that I believe contain the “meat” of what can be gleaned from the tribunals. If this meat can be captured, even in a rough way, and fed back into the system at the point where it is most needed - pre-cana and marriage counseling - It might serve to reduce the numbers of Catholic marriages breaking up and consequently the numbers of annulment cases overall…

Peace
James

Not sure about the 1/3 … they could be significantly more … and I do not believe that they are more straight forward … in my experience - Why? - in part because what would make a marriage non sacramental for a catholic couple [or even if only one party is catholic] is considered to be sacramental for a non catholic couple - for example - marriage before a justice of the peace is never considered a sacramental marriage in the Church - but is given that presumption for a non catholic couple

My spouse and I were both divorced and remarried - after our marriage - we made our way back into the church. My spouse was a non practicing catholic at the time of our marriage - My spouse was not catholic when they married the first time - though they married a catholic - it was after the marriage that they converted … my first marriage was to a non baptized person before a justice of the peace …

Our annulments were started at the same time - mine took months longer to compete - for a variety of reasons - but I can tell you that on the serface - it seemed like mine was considered more complex … which initially felt so very odd to me - since both of us my former spouse and I - were non catholics at the time of the marriage, the divorce and also when the annulment was initiated …

It definatelty was not easy, there was no rubber stamp of approval - and at no time did I feel like it was going to be a given …

And I know one person’s marriage [in the Lutheran church] was found to be sacramental - even upon an appeal - no decreee of nullity was granted and that divorced person was not allowed to marry in the catholic church - even though they had gone thorugh RCIA and had become a Catholic and desired to marry a Catholic … it was very hard …

 

[JRKH]

All good points YADA…
I probably oversimplified when I made my earlier comment.
Even within the cases that are (in a broad sense) lack of form cases…it appears that there are a wide variety…

Thanks for explaining…

Peace
James