Our family is currently going through a potential marriage at this time. However, the man is a baptized Catholic but the girl was a Protestant. They entered a civil marriage of some kind, “just for legal papers” to claim they were married. The two of them are no longer together.

This man wishes to marry one of our family members. But she will not go through with the marriage unless she knows this “civil marriage” was invalid in the eyes of God. He was never married before a Catholic priest when he was living with the Protestant girl. Which is key to note in this situation. 

We do have priests involved at this time to see about the validity.

 Thanks if anyone could give my family some insight on this matter.

Normally, the couple should not even get engaged until the declaration of nullity.

Doesn't seem as though this should be too difficult.  The man was a Catholic, ergo bound to marry according to canonical form, either that, or dispensed from it.  This could easily be accomplished through docuмents and affidavits, though I'm not sure how you go about proving a negative, viz. that there was no dispensation recorded anywhere. 

Doesn't seem as though this should be too difficult.  The man was a Catholic, ergo bound to marry according to canonical form, either that, or dispensed from it.  This could easily be accomplished through docuмents and affidavits, though I'm not sure how you go about proving a negative, viz. that there was no dispensation recorded anywhere. 

The Catholic Church isn't well-organized enough to have some kind of central registry or database of marriages and dispensations, and there are thousands of dioceses in the world.  A sect such as the Latter-day Saints [sic] would keep such records and have them easily available --- say whatever else you will about them, they're nothing if not efficient --- but that's just not how we roll.  (It took an act of Congress, figuratively speaking, to determine whether, when, where, and by whom my father's thirty Gregorian Masses were offered by the SSPX, and though I obtained verification after much effort, I understand that they finally threw up their hands and said they weren't accepting any more Mass stipends for the time being.  I had a similar experience with another traditionalist chapel in Florida when I attempted to have a Mass offered on the anniversary of his death.)

Deep down, I think that parents should arrange marriages and that young people should not be making such an important decision on their own.