Hello,

My sister has asked me to be godmother to her new baby. I of course said yes! But my husband is not catholic, and she wants to ask our other sister to be the other godparent. We know friends that have done this at our church, but now the priest there is saying no to the 2 female godparent request. Does anyone know why this cannot be done? I know what canon law says (godmother and godfather), but our church has done it before. Thanks for your help.

-- Catherine Robishaw (cmr@gwi.net), February 26, 2003

Answers

Dear Catherine,

If your church did it before, they were disobeying Canon Law. Perhaps your priest is aware of that and is now trying to do things the correct way.

I pulled the following from an old thread, which may clarify the Church's position. (JFG is a regular contributor to this forum.)

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

This means that there cannot be two of the same sex, and there cannot be more than two sponsors. The only possibilities are (1) no sponsor, (2) one sponsor, or (3) one sponsor of each sex. JFG.

-- Christine L. :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), February 26, 2003.