Question: Can a Catholic who was ‘married’ in a Protestant denomination ‘re-marry’ to another person in

the Catholic Church without any dispensation from the Protestant denomination?

Answer:
A Catholic, that is, a baptized faithful in the Church can only marry in Christ, with Him and through Him.
And this means that he or she marries in, with and through the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church. When
the Catholic marries another person who is baptized, that marriage is always a sacrament. Three general
elements are essential to that marriage: the mutual consent, the non-impeded persons who give it, and
the canonical form, the way the Church wants them to express their consent.

c.1127 states that this applies even to the case of the mixed marriage that is referred, ie, even if the
Catholic marries a Protestant (considered to be validly baptized), the Catholic must seek permission from
the local ordinary (the Bishop) so that there could be a marriage, with the form that the Church has
specified. The local ordinary could issue a dispensation of the canonical form.

If the Catholic did not do this, then his or her marriage can be considered inexistent objectively.

Subjectively though, we have to investigate. I am very particular on this to highlight the fact that once
married, always married. One must ask then: did this Catholic really seek a true marriage with the
Protestant? For life? If the Catholic considered this relationship really as something lifetime, then I would
not be pastorally inclined to easily approve of a celebration of marriage with another person, just because
of the disqualification in the technicalities in the form. I would even recommend the thorough process of a
declaration of nullity of any previous celebration, just to be clear that they were not really married.

All this is from the point of view of the Catholic. From the point of view of the Protestant denomination, I
guess that I would have to study what this "wedding ceremony" he or she had was all about. What
religious denomination? Was it a registered religion? Because most likely the Philippine Family Code
would bar a re-marriage, if ever the marriage license was issued.