Godparents

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Today my family was blessed with the baptism of our first grandchild. It was a blessed event. The priest was very warm and is well liked in his parish.

There were three baptisms performed today and they occurred after mass. Prior to beginning the baptism the priest spoke briefly about the godparents. My 15 year old daughter (catholic) and my daughter-in-law’s 20 year old brother (non-catholic) were the godparents. The priest began by saying that godparents role used to be thought of as a role where they would “take over” if something happened to the parents. “Today”,(and I am paraphrashing) he said, “the role is to be more of a good influence.”

Personally I was taken back by his cavalier attitude toward the sacrament. Am I overreacting?!

Scott
 
just a point of clarification, if the other person standing up with the child is non-Catholic, yet baptized, they are a Christian witness, not a godparent, but there only needs to be one Catholic godparent, so assuming the 15 yr old has been permitted to serve in this capacity, all is well.

and yes, it seems you have a more developed concept of the role of godparents than the priest seemed to indicate. he may have been trying to put people at ease about their responsibilities. yes indeed in past times, and even now in some cultures, the godparents do, or did, have a moral or legal responsibility for the child in case the parents died. This is no longer the case legally, but certainly morally, the godparents should be prepared to step in and do their best to see the child is raised Catholic, should the parents be unable or unwilling to carry out that duty in the future.

your lucky grandchild has good grandparents who will be helping the parents, and godmother, fulfill their duty to this baby.
 
It depends on what you understand by ‘take over’ and ‘be a good influence’.

The role of a godparent has always been to be a good influence on the child, to pray for him/her and generally support the parents in their role as primary teachers of the Faith.

If by take over you mean as guardians if something should happen to the parents,the Church knows that the godparents have no legal standing and might never see the child again. It would be up to the parents to either name the godparents as guardians.
 
Thank you, puzzleannie and Phemie for replying. I really was not totally clear with my question. I realize that the role no longer serves like a will or trust that legally establishes the role of a guardian. I felt that editing the whole thing down to a “good influence” minimized the importance of the sacrament.

Frankly, I would have liked the priest to give a brief explanation of the sacrament for those in attendance that were non catholic but no such luck.

At any rate, I am lucky that my son was INSISTENT that the child be baptized in his church as previously agreed prior to their marriage in my daughter-in-law’s Lutheran church. In her defense as well, she informed her mother that the baby would be baptized in the Catholic church. Much to the other grandmother’s chagrin. 😉
 
The thing is that godparents often have no other role in the child’s life. I have 2 goddaughters, the first I rarely saw since they lived in another town. She was my own godmother’s daughter and since my godmother was several years my senior (12) there wasn’t much I could do when she didn’t live up to her own responsibilities as a Catholic mother.

The second is the child of friends who have now split up. The dad was the Catholic and he was never committed to raising the children in the faith. The mother is agnostics at best, bitter at the ex and while she had no problem when we took the kids to ‘Christian’ camp, she’d be less than thrilled if I started trying to impose my view of what being a godparent is onto her family.
 
lsburk said:
Today my family was blessed with the baptism of our first grandchild. It was a blessed event. The priest was very warm and is well liked in his parish.

There were three baptisms performed today and they occurred after mass. Prior to beginning the baptism the priest spoke briefly about the godparents. My 15 year old daughter (catholic) and my daughter-in-law’s 20 year old brother (non-catholic) were the godparents. The priest began by saying that godparents role used to be thought of as a role where they would “take over” if something happened to the parents. “Today”,(and I am paraphrashing) he said, “the role is to be more of a good influence.”

Personally I was taken back by his cavalier attitude toward the sacrament. Am I overreacting?!

Scott
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I believe the priest was speaking of the prior idea that on the death of both parents the Godparents would adopt or care for the children. In today’s civil law it’s more complicated then that.

However you do have a few things misunderstood. The 20yo non-Catholic CANNOT be a Godparent, a Godparent must be Catholic.

Second unless allowed by the Bishop or pastor for just reason, the 15yo does not meet the requirement of age specified in Canon Law.

Can. 873 One sponsor, male or female, is sufficient; but there may be two, one of each sex.

Can. 874~1 To be admitted to undertake the office of sponsor, a person must:

1° be appointed by the candidate for baptism, or by the parents or whoever stands in their place, or failing these, by the parish priest or the minister; to be appointed the person must be suitable for this role and have the intention of fulfilling it;

2° be not less than sixteen years of age, unless a different age has been stipulated by the diocesan Bishop, or unless the parish priest or the minister considers that there is a just reason for an exception to be made;

3° be a catholic who has been confirmed and has received the blessed Eucharist, and who lives a life of faith which befits the role to be undertaken;

4° not labour under a canonical penalty, whether imposed or declared;

5° not be either the father or the mother of the person to be baptised.

~2 A baptised person who belongs to a non-catholic ecclesial community may be admitted only in company with a catholic sponsor, and then simply as a witness to the baptism.
 
Well, Br. Rich, you have really left me unsettled in this matter now. I guess I will take solace in the fact that it was a valid baptism in a Roman Catholic church and never mention those other facts to my wife.😦
 
I wouldn’t worry too much about the goddaughter’s age, most priests will allow a 15 year old to be one and they have the right to do so. Each priest will decide what is a ‘just reason’ and being the child’s aunt will usually fall into that category. My own godparents were 10 & 12 at the time of my baptism and when we became godparents to our first goddaughter, I was 16 and my brother 15. I checked with our bishop only 2 months ago and even he became a godfather at the age of 15.

As for the non-Catholic ‘godfather’, no he’s not one by Church definition. That said, in my parish, due to our high proportion of mixed marriages, about 85% of the baptisms we celebrate have a non-Catholic witness with a godparent and I haven’t met a family yet that didn’t call the non-Catholic “godparent” even after having the difference explained. He can certainly play the role in your grandchild’s life by supporting your son & his sister in their role of transmitting the faith. I’ve met some non-Catholic witnesses who were better at that than the actual godparent they stood with.

Since your grandchild only required one godparent – and really none is needed for a valid, licit baptism – I think you should rest easy.
 
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