Has anyone had a Catholic Annulment?

[SuperEkstra]

Just that! Has anyone gone through the process who might be able to give me some guidance and advice?

Try this, OP www.catholicfamily.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/NBCW-A-Guide-to-the-Annulment-Process-4th-Edition.pdf. Hope it helps.

My cousin's marriage was annulled. It took years, and included two of my uncles being in touch with the Vatican (they were both members of some Very Wonderful Catholic Club); I expect that helped.

I believe the marriage has to be 'unconsumated'.

It doesn't have to be unconsummated but it takes fucking forever and you will go through a lot to prove why you should get it. Get divorced.

Yes, I have. And I help with a lot more through my work in the Church. You can DM me if you want to chat.

In response to previous messages:

1. You have to be civilly divorced before you can seek an annulment. It's not an either/or option.
2. The marriage can be consummated. An uncommsumated marriage is (rare) in a completely different category and usually wouldn't need an annulment.
3. It takes around 6 months to process for the vast majority of cases. Less if it's a simple case like marrying outside the church. More if it's rejected and goes to appeal. Potentially slightly more at the moment because of covid restrictions.

That's interesting, Fink. It must have been some weirdness with my cousin then; it really did take a looooong time and my uncles were very concerned and worried.

Good luck SuperEkstra, I hope that you get what you want quickly.

It took about 2.5 years for my friends annulment to go through, including statements to priests from the couple and witnesses to their relationship.
It’s a hell of a long, drawn out, painful process.

I have two friends who sought annulments in order to marry each other in a Catholic Church. I was brought up Catholic so was interested in the process. It's just divorce for Catholics.

I do know of someone (friend of a friend) who had one. Took a good year or so as I remember.

@Jux, the way you described involvement in the Vatican means it wasn't a straight annulment. For that to have happened, the first application had to be denied (probably around 6 months, could have been longer if it was e.g. in a developing country or a long time ago). Then an appeal in the same country had to be denied. That could potentially have involved a whole new investigation if the appeal court completely disagreed with the first court, but more likely it would have been another 6 months or so. Then the whole case would have gone to Rome and that can take several years. It is very rare for things to get to that level unless one person in the marriage is consistently arguing against the annulment (see, for example, the Kennedy case in the US which took a decade). It's not necessarily a particularly difficult of weird case for your cousin, by far the most likely scenario is that his/her ex contested it through multiple courts and that naturally takes up more time but is uncommon.

Fink, that makes sense, and it's entirely possible the ex refused repeatedly.