Catholic Church Question

[cepmom]

DH's sister has asked DH and I to be our new baby nephew's godparents We are both very honored to be asked, but the problem is that I'm not Catholic and Aidan will be baptized in the Catholic Church. Can I be his godmother if I'm not catholic?? Does this depend on the church or the archdiocese? Does the priest get to make the decision himself??


I am protestant (not practicing) but DH and I were married in a catholic church and we are raising our girls catholic if that makes any difference. TIA!

 

[mickeyboat]

My church required at least one godparent be a Catholic in good standing. The godfather had to get a letter from his parish stating he was regularly attending church, etc.

Denae

 

[Cindy's Mom]

I'm not Catholic, but am a godparent to a Catholic child, DH is the godfather and he is Catholic, we did not need a letter stating that DH attended church, so I guess it all depends on DSil's church and their requirements

 

[Not so Dumbo]

Considering that you were married in a Catholic Church, you must have gone through some of the "requirements", otherwise they wouldn't have let you. So I'd say that there probably won't be a problem. If so, let the parents worry about clearing it up.

IMHO- Godparents don't really do much anyhow. At least mine and all the others that I know of didn't.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

It will depend on the parish. When my dd's were baptized my priest would not allow non-Catholics to be the godparents.

In fact he only wanted practicing Catholic's. You have to provide proof you were a parish member of a Catholic Church.

 

[mickeyboat]

Considering that you were married in a Catholic Church, you must have gone through some of the "requirements", otherwise they wouldn't have let you. So I'd say that there probably won't be a problem. If so, let the parents worry about clearing it up.

IMHO- Godparents don't really do much anyhow. At least mine and all the others that I know of didn't.

I wonder if this varies from parish to parish. We were married in the Catholic Church, and DH didn't have to do any requirements other than the pre-marriage testing and counseling. He was not eligible to be the "Catholic" member of the godparent team for his neice.

Denae

 

[jedi_librarian]

I believe it depends on the church. I'm a godmother to 2 children, and both were baptized in Chicago. It's the same diocese, but different churches and different rules.

 

[4cruisin]

Dh and I are Godparents to our friends baby. We are both non practicing Catholics but did not have to give a letter or prove we were Catholic.

I have been asked to be Godmother to my best friend's baby and although the mother is Catholic the baby will be baptized in a Protestant church. I didn't think I could be the Godmother but I guess it is only an honorary title as the mom and dad have already spoken to the minister and she said it's not an issue.

 

[Crankyshank]

It depends on the diocese. Mine requires one godparent to be a Catholic in good standing although the definition of good standing is up to interpretation by the individual Church.

 

[JunieJay]

In our church just one of the godparents needs to be baptized a Catholic. My second child has two non Catholics as godparents - one is Jewish, acutally, and the other was baptized as a Catholic but is not practicing.

 

[Bob Slydell]

My church required at least one godparent be a Catholic in good standing. The godfather had to get a letter from his parish stating he was regularly attending church, etc.

Denae

Same here, our youngest son's godfather is not Catholic (actually, he's not even Christian ), but his godmother is. Like others have said, it varies from parish to parish (and from pastor to pastor).

 

[cepmom]

thanks so much! It's good to know that others have been able to do it. I'm not really sure why I thought I would automatically be "rejected" I thought I heard that somewhere

Not So Dumbo ~ as far as I know there were no requirements for me to get married to DH in a catholic church. The priest asked me if I was christian and since I was, he said I was all set
I hear you on the godparents "duties"...we have had two (out of six) that have apparently fallen off the face of the earth

DSIL is going to check with her priest and get back to me

 

[belle&beast]

I am Catholic and have 2 children. When DD5 was baptized, my BIL who is no longer practicing, had to get a letter from his church (Church of the Bretheren) that he was a member in good standing. For my DS2, there were no questions asked- at the same church with the same pastor.

DH and I are Godparents to our friends' little girl and that pastor wanted a letter from our Catholic Church in the same dioscese that we were active members.

I guess it all depends upon the pastor...

 

[Chicago526]

It will depend on the church or the archdioceses. Most will be okay with it as long as one of the god parents are a Catholic in good standing (ie goes to Mass most weeks), the other can be anything. But some churches/dioceses are more strict than others so if the parents haven't checked, they should before you proceed any further.

 

[CJMZ]

There was something about this in our church bulletin not long ago.
Most churches only require that one person (Catholic of good standing) baptize a baby. Basically the second person is considered honorary, and does not have to be Catholic.
Interestingly our new pastor just changed the requirements of the "Catholic" godparent. They have to live the life of a Catholic (meaning no co-habitating prior to marriage, no divorced person, bad habits, etc.).
I am sure that they are not doing themselves any favors, it is hard enough to get people to go to church nowadays, this restriction is certainly not going to help.

 

[golfgal]

In the two churches where our kids were baptised they both requested that one Godparent be a practicing Catholic but neither asked for proof of any kind. They trusted the parents to pick good Godparents for their children.

 

[Tiffer]

DH's sister has asked DH and I to be our new baby nephew's godparents We are both very honored to be asked, but the problem is that I'm not Catholic and Aidan will be baptized in the Catholic Church. Can I be his godmother if I'm not catholic?? Does this depend on the church or the archdiocese? Does the priest get to make the decision himself??


I am protestant (not practicing) but DH and I were married in a catholic church and we are raising our girls catholic if that makes any difference. TIA!

WE had to have 1 godparent be Catholic. No letters or anything tough. I think most Catholic churches are kind of desperate for members theses days and are pretty lienient on some issues that they used to be more strict about. I grew up Catholic and attended Catholic School as did my DD for a while. I have seen the changes over the last 30 years, especially the last 8 or so.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

My parish/diocese required one godparent Catholic and the other could be Christian. My oldest has my non-active Catholic sister and a very active catholic friend as her godparents.

So as long as they have a Catholic person as well, then you are fine. Though I've been hearing it differs by diocese...not sure what the Vatican's stance on it is though.

 

[Blue Skies]

I copied the information below from EWTN (Rev. Mark J. Gantley):

For a person to serve as a godparent, one must be a practicing, confirmed Catholic. Part of being a practicing Catholic is to be going to Mass on Sunday, having been married in the Catholic Church, etc.

According to cannon law (Canon 874, §2) "A baptized person who belongs to a non-Catholic ecclesial community is not to participate except together with a Catholic godparent and then only as a witness of the baptism."

So, only the Catholic party would stricly speaking be the Godparent. The non-Catholic is only a witness.

Hope this helps.

Melissa