Requirements to be a Catholic godparent?

Factual Questions
1

On the fictional show *Downton Abbey *one of the characters is allowed to be a godparent to her Catholic niece despite the fact that she’s an Anglican. A few years ago I was told by my SIL that her priest wouldn’t let me be a godparent for her daughter (and my niece) because I am Jewish. My husband was asked instead. His father is Catholic although he was raised as a Methodist and is currently an atheist.

Are there any specific requirements to be a godparent for a Catholic baby? I admit I really didn’t care about it but my SIL was quite embarrassed when she had to tell me. Do you have to be a practicing Catholic?

2

A godparent is SUPPOSED to be a practicing Catholic, but at most Catholic churches I’ve gone to, nobody checks very closely. Certainly, nobody I know has been asked for any affidavits saying that the godparents are Catholic at all.

Maybe it was different years ago, but in all likelihood, if the parents are members of a parish and submit all the proper paperwork at the parish office, their baby will be baptized and the godparents won’t even be asked if they’re Catholics.

3

This was about eleven years ago when my youngest niece was born. My SIL told me that she specifically mentioned the fact that I am Jewish to her priest and he vetoed me. I shrugged it off but she was very red-faced and apologetic when we came to the baby’s christening. I was more curious than anything else.

4

Way back when (about 40 years ago) I was godfather for my nephew. The priest who was doing the baptism wanted a form signed by the pastor of my parish attesting to my being a Catholic in good standing. I have no idea if that’s still a common practice, but the godparent is still supposed to bea Catholic in good standing.

5

I’m the godfather of Catholic girl and I’m not Catholic or a Christian. No one ever asked.

6

That was my experience two years ago when my son was baptized. Although both the godmother and godfather were (at least on paper) Catholic, no one asked for any sort of documentation or even something as basic as what parish they were from.

However, part of the role of godparent is supposed to be guiding the child in the Church so, at least in theory, the godparents are expected to be Catholic even if no one is checking ID.

7

Only one godparent is needed and must be a Catholic in good standing. When I was my nephew’s godparent, I also had to get a form signed by my pastor stating that I was a Catholic in good standing (which was really strange, because it was the same parish) . However, if you read kunilou’s link, you will see that once you have the necessary Catholic godparent you may also have a non-Catholic “Christian Witness”.

8

In the show, the baby’s father says that only one godparent need be Catholic (the character’s brother). Perhaps the second non-Catholic godparent is not an official godparent in that case?

9

Perhaps that’s what I am, then, for my nephew, as I thought I was his godfather. (My sister-in-law’s sister was the godmother and I assume that she is Catholic.) BTW, as soon as I was asked to be godfather, it was very hard to resist imitating Marlon Brando’s accent from the movie.

10

You were present at the baptism?

Were you asked to renew your baptismal vows during the ceremony? I suspect you were, since that’s absolutely a part of the Rite of Baptism.

11

I was present. Nothing was asked.

12

Upon further consideration, I don’t know exactly what I attended. We were in the church, the priest said some stuff and threw some water at me. I think I was asked to sign something. It was almost 30 years ago so I don’t really remember the details, but I wouldn’t have pretended to be Catholic.

13

In everyday life, you’d be called the godfather. “Christian witness” only comes up when people say that godparents don’t have to be Catholic - I’d be surprised if the average priest even made that distinction to the parents as long as there was one catholic godparent.

14

The thing is… in the Catholic Church, priests don’t really “wing it,” when conferring sacraments. There is a ritual associated with the sacrament of baptism. Although some parts of the ritual do allow for innovation, the key parts of that ritual – not strictly mandatory to confer the sacrament, but adhered to strictly anyway unless grave circumstances exist – includes having water thrown at you, as you remember, and the following words are spoken:

It would surprise me mightily to hear of a baptism conducted under ordinary circumstances that did not include that dialog.

15

I don’t recall what was said, but as in other times I’ve attended Catholic services I wouldn’t have responded to such questions. Noticing doreen’s post, my wife was born Catholic. Perhaps that satisfied them.

Anyway, it was meaningless ritual to me. I promised the girl’s mother that if anything happened to her I would take care of her daughter, that’s all that mattered to me.

16

I assume that by “threw some water at you”, you mean he dipped a sprinkler or whisk broom or some such into a bowl of water and shook it at you? That could be almost any Catholic event at all. The important thing for the baptism is that he got the kid wet, probably by either dunking him, or pouring water over his head (I suppose you could technically baptize with just a sprinkling, but in practice it’s never done that way).

Incidentally, not exactly on topic, but in the eyes of the Catholic Church all that’s strictly speaking needed for a baptism is water, words to the effect of “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”, and a sincere intent on the part of the person doing the baptism. It’s usual practice for the baptism to be performed by a priest, and to have godparents, and so on, but technically, an atheist can perform a valid baptism, with nobody else (besides the baptizee) present, and no pomp nor ceremony. One implication of this is that, since almost all Christian sects follow this pattern for baptisms, the Catholic Church recognizes almost all Christian baptisms as valid.

17

  1. A baptism can occur with no godparents. Canon Law prefers it not to be done that way, but it can.

  2. A baptism should have at least one godparent, who is a baptized-and-confirmed-and-communicated Catholic (and by ‘Catholic’, that includes Eastern Rite Catholic Churches and Orthodox). If there are two godparents for an infant, they are to be male and female. Canon Law states they should be at least 16 years old, though a bishop or pastor may dispense from the age requirement for “a just cause.”

  3. Parents are excluded from being godparents. Grandparents are not.

  4. If there is one valid godparent, then a second person who is a non-Catholic Christian (i.e., a baptized Protestant) may be admitted to be a ‘Christian Witness’ and act for all intents and purposes as the second godparent.

  5. How do we know someone is a valid choice to be a godparent? It’s up to the pastor in whose church the child is being baptized. He can be lazy or unconcerned or hostile to the rules and not check up on the person presenting themselves to be a godparent. Or, he can check up on them. If he doesn’t know the person, he can ask them to have their local pastor provide a letter of eligibility that they are indeed eligible to be a godparent or Christian witness.

  6. Non-Christians can not be godparents. Ever. The reason why (and the reason for some of the restrictions on the Christian godparents) is that a godparent also servers as a sponsor and spiritual guide. You can’t sponsor someone into an organization that you’re not a member of. You can’t guide someone into living a good Catholic Christian faith if you’re not practicing or have ‘issues.’ It’s not an issue of being a ‘good person.’ It’s an issue of membership.

  7. It is not the understanding of the Church that the godparents will be the guardians of the children if the parents die. It is simply not despite the number of Catholics who chose godparents based on that criteria. The people you chose to be guardians of your children should be named in a Will. If you die intestate, the judge will not give a damn who the children’s godparents are and will ship them to nearest relatives.

  8. As you can see by #7 above, there is a popular idea of what godparents are that does not conform with what the Church thinks of them. If people want, they can name whomever they want and as many people they want to be ‘godparent’ for their children. For the sake of the religious ceremony, the Church wants at least one ‘proper’ one. If you ‘name’ twenty others, then go ahead, knock yourself out. But only the proper ones get recorded on the Baptismal Certificate. (In fact, it is customary in Filipino culture to have several sets of couples to act as godparents, but, only two get onto the official certificate.)

18

In my recent experience, during the ceremony, godparents are specifically asked by the priest whether they are Catholics in good standing, and they promise to guide the child in Christian faith. (They can lie, but why would you?)

19

I asked my wife, she said it was a real Baptism. I’m not going to press her for details or it will end up with another diatribe about the IHM nuns making her life miserable. They either screwed up and/or it wasn’t official in my case. Either way, it doesn’t change the relationship I have with my goddaughter and her family. I certainly did not pretend to be a Catholic in any sort of standing.

Chronos, there was some sort of ceremony with water for the baby, though I don’t remember any details. Her parents were up there with their daughter and the priest. Though I don’t recall specifically, I’m positive my thoughts at the time were the same as at almost all religous services, “How much longer will this thing go on?”.

20

I stood as a “Christian witness” to be the godparent for my niece. I did have to affirm that I would do my part to guide the child in the faith. At the time I still considered myself agnostic, so it wasn’t really a lie. In the intervening years, my sister has left the Catholic faith and I’ve actually turned atheist, so it all seems kind of moot now.