Choosing God Parents

[jgiordan]

My wife and I have just had our 3rd child and need to get her baptized. We are struggling with who to choose. We each have some married siblings who we have thought about choosing but none of them are strong in their Catholic beliefs. One sister was raised a strong Catholic but since getting married to a Protestant has fallen away to some extent. Another sister is married to a Catholic but neither of them are practicing.My question is whether you would suggest choosing one of these couples in the hopes that it may strengthen their faith or choosing a pair of catholic friends (not dating) to be the God parents of our child.

 

[Tina_in_Ashburn]

Godparents don’t have to be related to you, so feel free in going outside your family. Godparents don’t have to be related to each other either - the “parent” thing is spiritual. None of my siblings nor my Godparents were related to each other.

Godparents are supposed to pray for their charges so it makes sense to pick as solid practicing Catholics as you can. Also, Godparents can be closer in age to your child than you are, so that they can pray and have a good spiritual effect on you kid, even after you are gone!

Unfortunately, today’s culture has made the idea of the ‘godparent’ as simply an honor to give a favorite friend or relative, or assigned to somebody who will remember the kids special occasions with gifts and money throughout their life.

The emphasis should be on the spiritual “parentage” of the child and revolve more around the Godparents’ ability to pray for the child and be a good example.

 

[kayla]

The emphasis should be on the spiritual “parentage” of the child and revolve more around the Godparents’ ability to pray for the child and be a good example.

( how very true) this is.

My husband and were recently asked to be godparents to our great neice who will be baptised soon. I am a practicing Catholic and my husband is a presbyterian, we were so very happy to become godparents, however our role is a spiritual one in that we would make a good example to our Godchild of the christian life
btw…the parish that is preforming the baptism states that at least one godparent be a practicing Catholic with a letter from his/her parish stating so.
Good luck and God Bless!

 

[Phemie]

My wife and I have just had our 3rd child and need to get her baptized. We are struggling with who to choose. We each have some married siblings who we have thought about choosing but none of them are strong in their Catholic beliefs. One sister was raised a strong Catholic but since getting married to a Protestant has fallen away to some extent. Another sister is married to a Catholic but neither of them are practicing.My question is whether you would suggest choosing one of these couples in the hopes that it may strengthen their faith or choosing a pair of catholic friends (not dating) to be the God parents of our child.

If you’re satisfied with your other two children’s godparents why not ask two of them to be godparents to your third child also? There is no limit to how many godchildren one can have – I think my dad has at least 18.

 

[amandamay83]

Not to hi-jack your thread, but I feel compelled to share my child’s godparent story.

My now husband and I had both of our children out of wedlock. When I was pregnant with our first, I discussed with the father the godparent selection. At the time, he was a Catholic in name only. I told him I had hoped to have my brother as one godparent, and was considering my cousin as the godmother, unless he had someone from his family that he wanted. He did not, as I suspected. We discussed and agreed that my brother and cousin would be godparents.

So I finally have our son and we begin setting up the baptism. My MIL got wind of who we were going to have as godparents. She flipped. Apparently, in her family, it is “tradition” to have the grandparents as godparents It was then that I found out that my husband’s godparents were his maternal grandfather (who was a lousy Catholic) and his paternal grandmother (who wasn’t any religion at all, as far as I know).

My husband and I ended up getting into a HUGE argument about this. It wasn’t that he personally cared, he just didn’t want to argue with his mother. I explained more times than I can count that the godparent is supposed to be someone who will see to our child’s spiritual upbringing in the event of our untimely demise. Presumably, the grandparents will die before the parents. The notion of grandparents as godparents was and is absolutely ludicrous to me. Even if it were NOT a ridiculous idea, his family is quite possibly the worst Catholics I have ever met. His dad teaches CCD, but in the nearly 9 years that I have been with my husband, I could count on ONE hand and have fingers left the number of times his family has been to mass. Don’t get me wrong, I like my FIL fine, but I would never pick him as a godparent for any child.

Soooo…you didn’t ask for my story, but I felt compelled to share anyway. Hope you’ll forgive me

Anyone else heard of this “tradition” of grandparents as godparents?

 

[Phemie]

My friend & her husband are godparents to both their granddaughters. The girls couldn’t dream of better godparents: in Church, involved in their lives, etc., etc.

I don’t think in that family it was a case of tradition, simply a case of daughter not knowing anyone she could see more involved in the girls’ religious upbringing than her parents. She was lucky, her oldest is about to finish high school and her youngest is entering Jr. high so unless something goes horribly wrong the girls will be adults before they lose their god/grandparents.

 

[Tina_in_Ashburn]

Anyone else heard of this “tradition” of grandparents as godparents?

Nope, but every family is different. I’d venture a guess that in families that are ‘cultural’ Catholics-in-name-only that this kind of tradition might be more prevalent. The tradition trumps the spiritual advantage you could say.

Some people do have great godparents. Some are just rotten!