Why do annulments take so long?

[YADA]

What on earth does the literacy rate in a country have to do with couples trying to keep their marriage together, if possible, rather than immediately jumping ship?

In case you are wondering the literacy rate in the USA is 99% while in the Philippines it is 94%.

Yes and the Philippines is a more “Catholic” country then the US … you compared statistics on the number of Catholics and annulments - as if their was direct correlation - you have yet to comment on the FACT that non-Catholics and their non-Catholic marriages which end in divorces can and do end up before a Catholic Tribunals - thus negating any direct correlation …

Countries where Catholics are a smaller percentage of the population and that have higher literacy rates have higher rates of mixed marriages - and many of these annulment cases are sought do to those conditions …

In my experience and direct observations from working in a parish with over 2000 families - with returning Catholics and the RCIA - the majority of the annulments sought have been for marriages that were contracted between two non-Catholics that ended in divorce …the principal reason is that the divorced non-Catholic is dating a Catholic. And of those Catholics - less then half of whom have also been previously married and divorced - some of whom have yet to apply for an annulment decision. The other half of those Catholics were either never married or are widowed.

Many of the annulment requests involve two married non Catholics who were married before, divorced and then remarried their current spouses and are now seeking to become Catholics.

So … Please explain how your number of Catholics and number of Annulment cases statistics relate and account for that reality?

 

[Sooner87]

As someone that is on the tail end of the process, here is my story.

I met with my priest in late May 2013. He gave me the paper work and I filled it out in about two weeks (this was tedious and was probably the worst part. It was worth it to get things off my chest). On June 16, 2013 the Tribunal accepted my case. My witnesses received paper work in mid-August and had it turned in by early September. On November 19, 2013 I got a letter stating that the Tribunal had indeed reached an affirmative decision. It still has to go through two appeal courts but I have called and was told that an estimated time for everything to be complete would be the end of December to mid-January.

Not ALL annulments take 1-3 years. There are many factors that go into it as each has different circumstances. Mine was pretty cut and dry, I stayed on my witnesses about turning in their paper work, and called the Tribunal once every two months or so to check the status of the case.

 

[His_helpmeet]

The Church’s general “rule of thumb” is to try to have an initial decision reached within one year of filing, and a second decision reached within six months of the appeal being filed. (In case anyone is not aware, two affirmative (i.e. marriage not valid) decisions are required in order for a marriage to be officially declared invalid. If the initial tribunal makes an affirmative decision, the decision is appealed automatically and they will file the paperwork with the appeals tribunal. If, at any point, a negative decision is reached, or one spouse is not happy with the decision, he/she may decide to file an appeal with the appeals tribunal or the Roman Rota, depending on which tribunal made the decision.) However, this is not a “set in stone” deadline. Some cases may take far less time, depending on the circumstances - particularly if it’s something you can prove “on paper”, such as being too closely related, having been married before, lack of canonical form without a dispensation, etc. Sometimes, too, if the tribunal doesn’t have too big of a stack of cases, or if it’s pretty obvious from the petitioner’s, witnesses’, and/or respondent’s statements that there was a serious impediment.

 

[Cojuanco]

Also, if you live in or have lived in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, or that’s where your diocese sends its automatic appeals to, it may take a long time because a lot of the records were destroyed by Katrina.