Information & Forms

To request Sacramental Records (Baptism, Profession of Faith, Marriage, etc.) from a Catholic parish, you will need to contact them and provide the appropriate information for them to locate and send you your records. Typically, this would include: your full name, date of birth, date when the Sacrament was received, your contact information, and where you would like the certificate sent ​(your current mailing address).
If you are unable to locate the parish or have questions about this process, please consult your Case Sponsor. 

To request Sacramental Records from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, U.S.A., refer to their website for information.

Finding a Respondent (Your Former Spouse)

It is a strict requirement of Canon (Church) Law that the Tribunal Office notify (through certified and regular mail) the Respondent (your former spouse) that this process is occurring. Failure to contact your former spouse can result in the entire process being declared invalid. Normally a person can be found using the Internet. If all means to locate your former spouse have been exhausted, the Tribunal can attempt to contact your former spouse through a family member, such as a parent or sibling. However, contacting your former spouse through a c/o (care of) address could delay the process since extra attention must be given to ensure that your former spouse has indeed received the notice. IF using a c/o address, specifically indicate whose address it is. If, after exhausting the means provided in this document, refer to section entitled: Tribunal Assistance. It is NOT recommended that you use a private detective or a paid locating service without first consulting the Tribunal.

Additional Questions to Assist in Finding Your Former Spouse

To assist you in finding your former spouse, consider each question. Refer to the tools/websites in this document.

1. Is there anything about the behavior or lifestyle of your former spouse that would make you think that your former spouse might be deceased? Describe all efforts of your search.
2. If there are any mutual friends, former in-laws or other relatives of your former spouse with whom you are still in contact, find out if they know where your former spouse is. List whom you contacted, giving this person's name, address, telephone and the relationship to your former spouse and their responses.
3. List the places that your former spouse has lived in chronological order, starting with the place of birth to the last known address. Be as detailed as you can, listing street addresses, city, state, etc.
4. Provide the full names of both parents of your former spouse, including the mother's maiden and current name. List the places that the parents of your former spouse have lived in chronological order, starting with their place of birth to their last known address. Be as detailed as you can, listing street addresses, city, state, etc. Describe all efforts made to contact them.
5. List the full names of all siblings of your former spouse and their spouses, along with their last known addresses. Give the approximate ages or approximate date of birth of the siblings. Describe all efforts made to contact any of them.
6. If there were children born of the marriage and those children are grown, give their current names, along with the full names of their spouses, including their last known addresses and telephone numbers. Describe all efforts made to contact any of them.
7. List the names of schools attended by your former spouse, especially high school and college. Try contacting the schools for your former spouse's address and explain your results.
8. If your former spouse was in military service, what branch of the military, what years of service and where?
9. List your former spouse's last known place of employment. Try contacting the place of employment for any possible leads to the location of your former spouse and explain your results.
10. If your former spouse was married previously, try contacting this former spouse or any children born of this previous marriage to see if they know where your former spouse is. List the names of all people whom you contacted and the results.
11. If your former spouse remarried after your divorce from him/her, try contacting any subsequent spouse or any children born from the subsequent marriage to see if they know where your former spouse is. List the names of all people whom you contacted and the results.
12. What other steps have you taken to find your former spouse?

 

Tools/Websites to Assist You in Finding the Respondent (Your Former Spouse)

Death Records

Death certificates within the past 25 years are considered protected records. Therefore, you are probably not qualified to order a certificate or record. However, you might be qualified to order a verification. There is no need to order a death certificate or death verification if you find that your former spouse is deceased at one of the following websites. Simply print out the page and present it to the priest. The two following databases contain most death records, though not all, in connection with Social Security death benefits.
Search the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) at Requesting SSA’s Death Information | Data Exchange | SSA. 

You can also search the data bank at www.ancestry.com.

Texas death records can be found at Death Records | Texas DSHS.

You can also write the Department of Vital Records in the State where your former spouse was last known to reside to see if there is a possible death certificate. www.vitalrec.com can be used as a tool to find the location and telephone of a State's Vital Statistics Office. It is much cheaper if you contact the State's Vital Statistics Office yourself rather than using the paid service that this website provides.

Telephone Book/White Pages

Try the telephone book for all the known places your former spouse has lived. If it is in another city or state, try contacting someone in that particular city/state who would be willing to look up or copy for you the listings of the last name. In this way, one can contact the listings in search of the former spouse or a family member.

Try directory assistance. When checking through directory assistance, always ask the operator upfront for an address and then the telephone number of the person you are trying to find. If checking in a particular city shows no results, ask the operator to check the surrounding area or the entire area code. List the directory assistance cities contacted and the results. State the results of any attempts by you or others to make contact by telephone.

The Internet has numerous white pages websites. They are not all alike. For a good search, try several different sites with different combinations of a person's name. If a man is remarried, his present wife might have the telephone listed in her name. At www.theultimates.com/white you can access six popular Internet white pages.

If you only have a telephone number for a person, there are two different, reverse searches at www.theultimates.com/white

Canon 1544 of Canon (Church) Law requires authentic documents to be submitted in this process. A certified civil document is an official copy from the government court/agency with its official seal.  The Tribunal Office will accept a photocopy of a certified civil document.

Marriage Application and License

A marriage application and license can generally be found in the County Clerk's Office of the county and state in which the license was obtained.
Some counties will check their records for free while other charge a search fee.
At the Vital Records Information – United States website, you can search by state and county to find the name of the county office, address and telephone to locate documents of death, marriage and divorce. Rather than use the paid service that this website charges, it is much cheaper if you then contact the county office yourself and request the information to obtain the document(s) yourself.
If the marriage and divorce took place in Texas and you need to know the date and the county in which the marriage or divorce took place, you can search for this information at the Texas Department of Health-Bureau of Vital Statistics website or contact the Tribunal for assistance.

Divorce Decree

A divorce decree can generally be found in the District Clerk's Office of the county and state in which the divorce was obtained.
It is required that you submit a certified copy of the complete and final divorce decree signed and dated by the judge with each petition submitted. The divorce decree does not become final until it is signed and dated by the judge. Therefore, the divorce decree that you submit to the Tribunal MUST be signed and dated by the judge. This is the date that should be listed on PART 11 of page 8 of the Formal Church Petition for a Declaration of Nullity. Do NOT use the date that is sometimes at the beginning of the divorce petition. This is the date when the divorce hearing took place and may differ from when the judge actually signed and dated the decree. Be aware that a county and state may issue a final divorce decree that is different from the divorce petition itself. If possible, submit both.
NOTE: If you were married and divorced more than once to the same person, submit a certified copy of all civil marriage licenses and all divorce decrees (signed and dated by the judge).

Obtaining Public Records from Harris County, Texas

General Hours of Operation

County Clerk - Monday - Friday 8:00 A.M. - 4:30 P.M.
District Clerk - Monday - Friday - 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.

Civil Marriage Application/License

Main Office:
Harris County Clerk's Office
201 Caroline, 4th Floor
Houston, Texas 77002
713-755-6405

Mailing Address:
HARRIS COUNTY CLERK
P.O. BOX 1525
HOUSTON, TEXAS 77251-1525

Fee: $1.00 per page. When ordering by mail, ask for marriage application (1 page) and license (2 pages) for a total fee of $3.00. Include the full name of both the bride and groom, the date or approximate date of marriage, the fee and a self-addressed, stamped return envelope.

This document can also be obtained at one of the Branch offices:
Physical Locations of Branch Offices

Civil Divorce Decree

A Church Petition for a Declaration of Nullity consists of 3 parts:

• Letter of Introduction
• Frequently Asked Questions about Annulments
• Formal Petition Form
  • Fill out electronically
  • Print and fill out by hand

The Formal Petition Form must be filled out as follows:

• Must be printed as a single-sided document on 8½ by 11-inch white paper
• Must be filled in completely. Incomplete forms will not be accepted.
• Must be filled in using only black ink
• Must include all proper signatures and initials
• Must include the Parish Seal

Along with the Formal Petition Form, the following documents must be submitted:

• Marriage/Divorce decrees.
• Catholic certificates (baptism, profession of faith, marriage), if applicable.
• Previous decree(s) of nullity, death certificate(s), etc., if applicable.
• Any additional information that may be requested by your Case Sponsor
  • All formal petitions must be printed out and mailed to the Metropolitan Tribunal once all of the required paperwork is gathered. Electronic submissions will not be accepted.

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For Parishes/Case Sponsors

Please note that the Formal Petition Form has changed in light of the new Motu Proprio, Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus. All old versions of the Formal Petition Form will no longer be accepted. Please always download forms from the website to ensure that you are using the most current ones.

If you have any questions or difficulties, please contact us. 

This petition form may be reproduced in one of the following three ways:

• Four pages (one side only).
• Two pages (front and back).
• One folded page (front and back) on 11-by-17-inch size paper.

Download Form

Please always download forms from the website to ensure that you are using the most current ones.
If you have any questions or difficulties, please contact us. 

Please make sure to follow these directions while completing the petition form.

Example:

Person A (Petitioner) wishes to be free to enter a Catholic marriage. However, Person A (Petitioner) was married and divorced from Person B (Respondent). Person B had been previously married to Person C (First spouse of Respondent). It was the first marriage for Person B and Person C, and Person C is still alive; the marriage of Person B and Person C is presumed valid. Therefore, the marriage of Person A and Person B is invalid because of the marriage of Person B and Person C

A. Person A (Petitioner) is to submit the following:

1. A completed Prior Bond/Ligamen petition form.
2. The marriage license for the marriage of Person A and Person B.
3. The divorce decree which is signed and dated by the judge for Person A and Person B.
4. The marriage license for the marriage of Person B and Person C.
5. The divorce decree which is signed and dated by the judge for Person B and Person C.

 

C. The above states the simplest requirements to the process. However, the Prior Bond/Ligamen petition can be complicated. Following are some problems which will delay the processing of a prior Bond/Ligamen petition or which will require Person A (Petitioner) to file a Formal Church Petition for a Declaration of Nullity:

1. A petition is lacking the required current address of Person B and Person C.
2. Lack of cooperation from Person B and Person C.
3. Missing documents. Although a marriage license and divorce decree are usually public records which can be obtained at the county courthouse where they are recorded, Person A may not know where the documents are recorded.
4. Person B has more than one previous marriage.
5. Person C was previously married.
6. Person C is a baptized Catholic. If Person C is a baptized Catholic and did not marry Person B by the Catholic Church, then the marriage of Person B and Person C would not be considered valid. Thus, the marriage between Person A and B is valid.
7. Person C is no longer living.

Download the Petition Form

Please always download forms from the website to ensure that you are using the most current ones.
If you have any questions or difficulties, please contact us. 

The Pauline Privilege is not a declaration of nullity, but rather an action of the Church which declares its power over a non-sacramental bond of marriage. The first marriage is dissolved when the second is contracted. These cases are governed by canons 1143-1147.

Please note that the Petitioner is not to be baptized or married until authorized by the Tribunal. The first marriage is dissolved only when the Petitioner having received baptism, enters into the new valid marriage. Normally, the baptism and the new marriage should be scheduled in close proximity.

It is pastorally important that the Petitioner understand this process. It should be made clear that this is an attempt to dissolve a previous valid marriage, not to declare it null. Hence, the validity of the previous bond is not challenged. Under no circumstances should the Petitioner be made to feel uncomfortable because of non-baptism. Please note, however, that in the case of a Pauline Privilege, baptism and a new marriage are required.

The following are some of the minimal conditions and requirements that must be met:

1. Both parties were unbaptized (or not validly baptized) at the time of the marriage, and neither party was baptized during the course of the marriage.
2. The parties separated and are divorced civilly.
3. The Petitioner (yourself) now wishes to receive baptism (or has received it).
4. The Respondent (the former spouse) does not intend to be baptized and does not wish to be reconciled with the Petitioner.
5. The Petitioner now wishes to enter a new marriage.
6. The Petitioner and the Petitioner's prospective or present spouse was not the cause of the breakup of the marriage.

If these conditions exist, the Pauline Privilege Petition, including the following information and documents, are necessary:

1. The marriage certificate of the marriage for which the dissolution is being petitioned.
2. The final decree of divorce of this same marriage.
3. The name and address of the former spouse (the cooperation of the Respondent is absolutely necessary).
4. The names and addresses of at least three witnesses for both the Petitioner and the Respondent. These witnesses are to testify about the non-baptism of both parties before and throughout the course of the marriage. These should be the parents and other family members of both parties.

 

Print and fill out by hand

Fill out electronically

Please always download forms from the website to ensure that you are using the most current ones.
If you have any questions or difficulties, please contact us. 

The Favor of the Faith is a special process that exists for non-sacramental marriages in which one of the parties in a former marriage was not baptized. Please read our brief introduction to this process below. If the conditions that govern this process apply to your former marriage, please fill out the Favor of the Faith Petition Form with the help of a Case Sponsor. Be sure to follow all instructions carefully to avoid any delays in the acceptance and progression of your case. If you choose to fill this Petition out by hand, please make sure to write legibly.

• Letter of Introduction
• Petition Form
  • Print and fill out by hand
  • Fill out electronically

Please always download forms from the website to ensure that you are using the most current ones.
If you have any questions or difficulties, please contact us.