Confused About Annulment

[fineplusfaithfu]

A Catholic man married a non-Catholic woman. They had their marriage blessed and exchanged rings and vows. Now they got a civil divorce. He is told that he can get an annulment. How long will it take in Orange County, California?

Also, I was told by another man who was in a similar situation that if there is not exchange of vows, then it is not “subrogated or subjugated”, some kind of “s…” word, then they don’t need an annullment. What is that “s” word?

Thanks,
FPF

 

[Dr.Colossus]

A Catholic man married a non-Catholic woman. They had their marriage blessed and exchanged rings and vows. Now they got a civil divorce. He is told that he can get an annulment. How long will it take in Orange County, California?

Every annulment case is different. It sounds like this would be an annulment based on lack of form, which if easily demonstrated usually can be processed quickly.

Also, I was told by another man who was in a similar situation that if there is not exchange of vows, then it is not “subrogated or subjugated”, some kind of “s…” word, then they don’t need an annullment. What is that “s” word?

Not sure about the “s” word, but it sounds like this would be what is called a “common law” marriage. There was no formal ceremony, the couple simply lived together and called themselves married. Some state governments have laws allowing this, but the Church does not recognize it even as a civil marriage. Therefore, since there was no marriage attempted in the eyes of the Church, an annulment is not necessary.

 

[puzzleannie]

every case is unique, “what I heard” is not a valid guide. the person has to submit his case to the marriage tribunal of the diocese. to do that he has to go through his pastor. the tribunal investigates all aspects of the marriage, interviews the parties, determines the conditions existing at the time of the marriage. If it determines either the pre-requisites for a valid marriage were lacking, or that the matter and form of the marriage were not themselves licit or valid, then it will issue a decree of nullity, a statement that no marriage ever existed. This does not affect the status of any children of the marriage, and it leaves both parties free to remarry. there is no such thing as an annulment, there is only a decree of nullity

 

[Willdecided]

After going through the annulment process myself, the only thing I can tell you is that each case is different.
It all depends on how long you were married, if you have children, how much information you provide to the tribunal,
if your spouse decides if they are going to participate in the annulment process.

Thankfully, in my case, my ex-wife had nothing to do with my annulment. She was sent all the information I received;
she could also go down to the tribunal office and view everything I had written about her and our marriage together,but she chose not to.

I was worried for a while after writing my paper; I call it a paper because I had to give specific details about our entire relationship together.
And I gave every detail that I could think of, including intimate details of our relationship. By the way, my paper was 76 pages long and I used
a normal sized font. The reason I was worried is because my ex-wife was unfaithful a few times in our marriage and I made note of that in the
paper. I started to worry afterwards because she was the type of person who would get angry and seek revenge on anyone who made her angry.

Anyway, to make a long story short, my annulment took roughly 15 months from start to finish. But again, that is because I wrote a very detailed paper,
my ex-wife was Protestant and decided not to participate and we did not have children.

That 15 months was very tough on me, physically and mentally, but after receiving the document from the tribunal stating that my marriage to my ex-wife
was null, it took so much stress out of my life and I was finally able to close that chapter of my life.

So, if you are wondering if it is worth it? I say yes, even though when my ex-wife and I seperated over three years ago, I said I would never get married again.
Guess what? I am getting married this September in the Catholic Church and I very happy that I had my previous marriage annuled.

 

[AlanFromWichita]

The appropriate “s” word is Stupid.

Annullments are stupid, opines I. Catholic divorce, as has been discussed in this other thread, too.

Seek and ye shall find. Get a good lawyer, and say the marriage never happened. That way we haven’t broken anything, just discovered it was never fixed. That’s a crock, unless the priests start saying, “I tentatively pronounce you man and wife.”

Alan