Just a bit of background, I was baptised Catholic as an infant, but recieved Eucharist for the first time and was confirmed this past Easter Vigil. My husband (Catholic who had his First Communion as a child but hasn't been confirmed) has begun attending Mass with me again, he hadn't been since he was a child. Since our "return" to the Church, we have decided to make some changes in our lives, paticularly in regard to birth control. So now that the possibility of children is much more likely than in the past, the subject of Godparents came up. Does anyone know if a Godparent absolutely positively has to be a CONFIRMED Catholic? There are a few relatives on both our sides of our family who have been confirmed, but there are some pretty strong reasons I would not ask them to be a Godparent. I would love to ask my husband's brother and my sister, but neither are confirmed. Is there anyone else who has encountered a similar experience?

-- Amy (amy20013@hotmail.com), June 11, 2003

Answers

Jmj

Hello, Amy.
Welcome back to the Church to you and your husband. Thank you for your new openness to fruitfulness in your marriage too.

Yes, the Code of Canon Law, in its section on Baptism says this about sponsors (commonly called "godparents"):

Canon 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 labor under a canonical penalty, whether imposed or declared;
----- 5° not be either the father or the mother of the person to be baptized.

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), June 11, 2003.

Well then, I guess my next question would be, could we baptise our children without naming any Godparents? Because if they have to be confirmed, then we just don't know anyone who "qualifies" that we would feel comfortable asking.

-- Amy (amy20013@hotmail.com), June 11, 2003.

Jmj
Hello, Amy.

The Code of Canon Law speaks of cases in which there could be zero, one, or two sponsors. I'll mention each now.

I was not sure if you are speaking literally or not, Amy, when you wrote:
"... could we baptise our children without naming any Godparents?"

I don't know if you are asking about literally baptizing the children yourselves or taking them to be baptized in church?

If you are referring to baptizing them yourselves, then I have to say that this is not permitted by the Church, except when a child (or adult) is in danger of death. Ordinarily, you need to arrange for a priest or deacon to ceremonially baptize a person (usually in church). When someone in danger of death is baptized (typically in a hospital), then it stands to reason that the person probably would not have a sponsor.

If you are referring to taking a child to be baptized in church, then there would have to be one sponsor ... or one sponsor of each sex. In the canon that I quoted above, point #1° mentions that, if a person to be baptized has no sponsor appointed by himself nor by his parents, then "the parish priest or the minister [would appoint a] person ... suitable for this role [who has] the intention of fulfilling it".

Amy, don't let this trouble you, please. You are not yet even expecting a baby, so you have plenty of time to prepare. The very best thing that you can do, in my opinion, is this:
Tell your husband's brother and your sister what you are thinking about, and encourage them to prepare themselves to be confirmed, so that they can be your future children's sponsors. Wouldn't that be great -- to see them fully living out their Catholic faith as you and your husband have decided to do?

However, not even one of these two relatives is not willing to go along with the idea, then something you can "fall back on" is this ... In the weeks and months ahead, you can try to participate very much in your parish's life, meeting your fellow parishioners. I think it likely that you can befriend at least one very good person who would later be willing to act as your children's sponsor(s).

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), June 12, 2003.

[Sorry. I left two words out of the last paragraph. I'll re-post it here, with the missing words in bold type.]

However, if not even one of these two relatives is not willing to go along with the idea, then something you can "fall back on" is this ... In the weeks and months ahead, you can try to participate very much in your parish's life, meeting your fellow parishioners. I think it likely that you can befriend at least one very good confirmed person who would later be willing to act as your children's sponsor(s).

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), June 12, 2003.

it has happened before that someone baptised would only have one sponsor. the sponsor does not need to be a family member either though. why dont you look at getting your husbands brother and your sister moving along in their confirmation process? that seems to be the best option granted the circumstance

-- paul (dontsendmemail@notanaddress.com), June 12, 2003.