Choosing Godparents

[kingb_211]

My wife and I have a three month old daughter, and we are plannig for her baptism. My first choice for her godparents were my cousin and his fiancee, but my wife pointed out that neither of the two are active in living the faith. Her choice was my cousins parents, but they are never around and neither one of us are close to them. My grand-parents meet all of our criteria, but we would like to have a couple closer to our age.

We narrowed it down to two couples, but cannot come to any agreement.

Couple A: One is Catholic, the other is not. They are married. The catholic is very spiritual and active in the church. The non-catholic does attend mass, but we are not sure if he/she has any plans of becoming catholic. This couple is our age, and lives nearby, but attends mass at a different church.

Couple B: Both are catholic, married, and attend mass regulary. This couple belongs to our parish, but niether one of us know either one of them. The husband and I were both confired this past Easter (2005). The only “connection” we have with them is that my wife and I are taking the RCIA classes with him.

If anyone has any recomindations we would really appriciate it. Of course, we are not looking fro the members of this forum to make a decision for us, but any help is welcome.

 

[Marilena]

kingb_211:

My wife and I have a three month old daughter, and we are plannig for her baptism. My first choice for her godparents were my cousin and his fiancee, but my wife pointed out that neither of the two are active in living the faith. Her choice was my cousins parents, but they are never around and neither one of us are close to them. My grand-parents meet all of our criteria, but we would like to have a couple closer to our age.

We narrowed it down to two couples, but cannot come to any agreement.

Couple A: One is Catholic, the other is not. They are married. The catholic is very spiritual and active in the church. The non-catholic does attend mass, but we are not sure if he/she has any plans of becoming catholic. This couple is our age, and lives nearby, but attends mass at a different church.

Couple B: Both are catholic, married, and attend mass regulary. This couple belongs to our parish, but niether one of us know either one of them. The husband and I were both confired this past Easter (2005). The only “connection” we have with them is that my wife and I are taking the RCIA classes with him.

If anyone has any recomindations we would really appriciate it. Of course, we are not looking fro the members of this forum to make a decision for us, but any help is welcome.

Why not get to know couple B? Invite them over for coffee, or tea.
Or, look in the church for a couple you might know really well, and
sit down with them and talk to them. If it was me, and Iam only speaking for myself, not others, I would look for a couple who are very solid church goers, and get to know them well. Just my opinion.

 

[thistle]

I believe a godparent must be a practising Catholic.

 

[mosher]

It really is your choice in this matter. Couple A is fine because the law only requires that one of the godparents be a practicing catholic which the other can technically be just a baptized person. The second coule is good too. The question that you must ask them is if they will take the role of helping you raise your child in the faith. This is also a question you must ask yourself.

 

[Kielbasi]

Why not pick one godparent from the devout Catholic couple, and choose the catholic from the other couple?

There is no requirement that the two godparents be related to each other, only that the 2 godparents be of different genders.

That could be a good solution as the child will become close with both families, and the non-godparents in both couples would be like step-godparents to the kid.

In this scenario, no one would really have cause to feel slighted.

 

[kingb_211]

Thanks for the replies, but i’m still “torn”. Couple A includes a friend (of nine years) of mine. He is very faithful in everything he does. Couple B belongs to my parish, but niether my wife or i know either one of them very well.

 

[JMJ_Theresa]

You have to have one confirmed Catholic Godparent. You can have as many Christian witnesses as you desire.

We chose Catholic, but not practicing God parents for our first four children. Or, perhaps sporadically practicing ones would be a better phrase. We thought we should pick family members. I deeply regret those choices.

For our last two kids, we picked devout Catholic couples who I know will always pray for their Godchildren–which I perceive as one of the great responsibilities of Godparents. Also, I know if anything happens to us, they will make sure that their God children are educated in the faith.

I tell my first four that we made bad choices for their Godparents but perhaps they could turn it around and pray for their Godparents.

I have six Godchildren. When I was asked, I was so thrilled and honored. Even if you don’t know a Catholic well, he or she will be thrilled to be asked. I also prayed deeply on the issue, so when I asked our friends, I said, “I’ve prayed on this, and I feel like God would like me to ask you.”

We know these two Catholic couples well, but I definitely had some closer friends. So, I did think it was somewhat of a nudge from Heaven in the Choice.