All female Godparents

maddladd

Hi All, We've just had a gorgeous little girl and want to start making plans for her christening. My question is has anyone ever had two female Godparents is this allowed in the Catholic church or is it down to the priests discretion? Thanks in advance

Optimalprimerib

My next door neighbours child has 2 female god parents if that's any help

smcelhinney

My sister has 3 godparents for her son, of which I am one. 2 godfathers, 1 godmother. Not sure of the etiquette surrounding it, but I imagine it's perfectly acceptable. Congratulations by the way!

pwurple

Congratulations on baby! Godparents can be any gender, age and there can be any number of them. I wouldn't see any problem with it.

Ballyman

We had two godmothers for our son without any probs. Its actually pretty common I think

January

Moved from Parenting

eviltwin

I'm joint godmother with another family member to my nephew and no problems. There are no godfathers and I'm not even Catholic :eek:

I have heard stories of people being told they must have the godmother/godfather as per tradition...seems to be very much dependant on the priest.

philologos

maddladd wrote: »

Hi All, We've just had a gorgeous little girl and want to start making plans for her christening. My question is has anyone ever had two female Godparents is this allowed in the Catholic church or is it down to the priests discretion? Thanks in advance

Why do you want to baptise your child? Just interested.

totus tuus

Code of Canon Law, No. 874.1

To be a sponsor, a person must be chosen by the person to be baptized, or by the parents or guardians of a child, or, in their absence, by the pastor or minister of the sacrament. The sponsor must not only have the intention of being a sponsor but also meet proper qualifications. The sponsor must have completed his sixteenth year unless the Bishop has established another age for sponsorship, or the pastor or minister judges that a just cause warrants an exception to the rule. He must be a Catholic who has received the sacraments of holy Eucharist and confirmation, and "leads a life in harmony with the faith and the role to be undertaken." Moreover, the sponsor cannot be impeded by some canonical penalty. Ideally, this sponsor at baptism should also be the sponsor for confirmation. Note that the mother and father of the child cannot serve as sponsors. Also note that these are the same requirements for confirmation sponsors. (Cf. Code of Canon Law, No. 874.1).



Strictly speaking, a person only needs one sponsor for baptism — male or female, but may have two sponsors, one male and one female. Here the Code of Canon Law wants to eliminate the practice of having numerous sponsors, as has occurred in some cultures (No. 873). Also, in the case of an emergency, such as imminent death, no sponsor is needed.
Here we should pause to clarify who qualifies as a Catholic godparent. A Catholic who does not practice the faith by regularly attending Mass or who is in an invalid marriage disqualifies himself from being a godparent. Moreover, if a person is Catholic but antagonistic to the faith, i.e. has the attitude "I am a Catholic but...," and would not be a good example and witness to the faith also disqualifies himself. If a person is not striving to fulfill his own obligations of baptism and confirmation, he will not fulfill the responsibilities of helping another to do so.

http://catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0233.html

Good question Phil.

Sadly there are those who do it because it's the 'thing to do' and a day out for the family. I'm in no way implying that this is the case with the OP, just that I've observed it happen with family members where they have hardly seen the inside of the Church until the next occasion, such as communions, confirmations and weddings!

eviltwin

totus tuus wrote: »

Code of Canon Law, No. 874.1

http://catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0233.html

Good question Phil.

Sadly there are those who do it because it's the 'thing to do' and a day out for the family!

What on earth makes you think the OP is doing it for those reasons? And are his or her reasons really relevant to the question posed? Either way its none of your business.

totus tuus

eviltwin wrote: »

What on earth makes you think the OP is doing it for those reasons? And are his or her reasons really relevant to the question posed? Either way its none of your business.

What makes you think I was directing my reply to the OP??? I was answering Phil's question!

eviltwin

totus tuus wrote: »

What makes you think I was directing my reply to the OP??? I was answering Phil's question!

Phils question was directed at the OP, adding your speculation about why people do it has nothing to do with what the OP asked.

I am starting to see why he/she posted this in Parenting in the first place :rolleyes:

Tisserand

My sister and I are godparents to our other sister's litle girl. No issues with the church

philologos

I'm just curious as to why the OP wants to do it. If they don't want to give an answer that's fine. I do have my own thoughts on this, but I'll leave them with me for now.

I think totus tuus' quotation of the Cathecism will probably answer the OP's question about Catholicism.

totus tuus

eviltwin wrote: »

Phils question was directed at the OP, adding your speculation about why people do it has nothing to do with what the OP asked.

I am starting to see why he/she posted this in Parenting in the first place :rolleyes:

....and yet you replied to my post, which was directed at Phil, ....oh the irony! :rolleyes:

Sorry the thread was taken off topic OP. I hope my original reply gives you some idea what the criteria is for Catholic Baptisms

tony81

maddladd wrote: »

Hi All, We've just had a gorgeous little girl and want to start making plans for her christening. My question is has anyone ever had two female Godparents is this allowed in the Catholic church or is it down to the priests discretion? Thanks in advance

A child can have 1 godmother, 1 godfather, or both a godfather and godmother. Not permitted to have two godfathers or godmothers

Benny_Cake

The OP asked a question and it's a little rude to question or speculate as to his motives for having his child baptised. His reasons are his own unless he chooses to share them. Please confine your answers to the question he actually asked.

And on a personal note, congratulations OP!

philologos

Benny_Cake wrote: »

The OP asked a question and it's a little rude to question or speculate as to his motives for having his child baptised. His reasons are his own unless he chooses to share them. Please confine your answers to the question he actually asked.

And on a personal note, congratulations OP!

I don't think it is rude, and it clearly wasn't my intention to be rude. I don't feel it is wrong to be interested in why people want to baptise their children particularly in an Ireland that is rapidly secularising. On the Christianity forum we should be more than willing to get into the ins and outs of this subject.

totus tuus

Benny_Cake wrote: »

The OP asked a question and it's a little rude to question or speculate as to his motives for having his child baptised. His reasons are his own unless he chooses to share them. Please confine your answers to the question he actually asked.

And on a personal note, congratulations OP!

To be fair Phil wasn't being rude. I guess I am the guilty party for somewhat taking it OT in replying to Phil's question, with what I observed within my own family!

Sorry OP, and congratulations.

bozharry

Hi, congratulations on your baby girl. I had two godmothers for my ds 3 years ago and there was no issues or hesitation from the priest. Good luck!

maddladd

Thank you very much for all the replies it seems it should be ok unless the priest gets a bit funny with it. On why we choose to get our child baptised it is a decision we both agreed on as we are regular participants in our church, we are by no means holy joes but we will at the very least let them make their own decision in later life, we're not doing it for the big day out it will be very small immediate family only and I believe an important milestone in the baby's life.

philologos

maddladd wrote: »

Thank you very much for all the replies it seems it should be ok unless the priest gets a bit funny with it. On why we choose to get our child baptised it is a decision we both agreed on as we are regular participants in our church, we are by no means holy joes but we will at the very least let them make their own decision in later life, we're not doing it for the big day out it will be very small immediate family only and I believe an important milestone in the baby's life.

My point in asking that question wasn't to judge. I'm genuinely interested in this. I'm not going to tell you that you should do X or Y.

As for letting them make their own decision in later life, surely baptism at an older age should be a consideration?

Also, even if infant baptism is the case, there is a commitment that all sponsors will make to raise their children in Christian faith. Have you thought about how you're (you, your wife and your godparents) going to do that?

I agree that a baptism is a hugely important step in peoples lives. It's the acknowledgement that someone has become a child of God by repenting and believing in the Gospel of Jesus.

Gumbi

philologos wrote: »

My point in asking that question wasn't to judge. I'm genuinely interested in this. I'm not going to tell you that you should do X or Y.

As for letting them make their own decision in later life, surely baptism at an older age should be a consideration?

Also, even if infant baptism is the case, there is a commitment that all sponsors will make to raise their children in Christian faith. Have you thought about how you're (you, your wife and your godparents) going to do that?

I agree that a baptism is a hugely important step in peoples lives. It's the acknowledgement that someone has become a child of God by repenting and believing in the Gospel of Jesus.

Good man. Gotta agree here, if you're going to baptise the child, do it right. The Godparents should be prepared to raise the child in the Christian faith. I would wait until the child is old enough to make a decision, though. It will be a lot harder for the child to make an objective choice consider that he/she will be being taught the faith by you/godparents. It's not fair to "set your child up" as it were. If you want them to truly choose, let them do so in their own time, and hen they're capable.

Manach

There should be no issue with who the godparents are so long as they make a semi-reasonable effort to act to as portals as to the general Christian community which they are part of from Baptism onward, that and of course remember the god-child's birthday every year.

irishmotorist

When getting ready for our young lads baptism, the priest said that we could have as many as we wanted. He used the example of Fillipino baptisms where there may be 10 godparents. That seems at odds with the earlier posted article, so perhaps a phone call to the priest would clarify.