I have a question about babtism.

We would like to get our daughter baptised by the Catholic church but the couple we have chosen as godparents was married by the Episcopal church since she is Catholic and he is Episcopalian.

Now I am being told by our parish that they cannot be the godparents since they are not married by the catholic church and did not get the blessing of the catholic church before they wedding.

It is interesting that they could be godparents if they were not married. She could be the godmother and he could be a 'Christian Witness' but since they are married by the episcopal church they do not qualify.

When we attended an anglican babtism last year, the priest mentioned that the babtism was the only sacrament that was accepted by all Christian churches.

I am wondering if our daughter would have some problem later on with getting her first communion or getting married by the catholic church if she was babtised by the Episcopal church ?

PS: Neither my wife nor me have any family here in the US and most of our frieds are not Catholic, so we don't have a lot of choice of god parents.

Any help would be appreciated.

Chris

-- Chris (txcrude_96@yahoo.com), February 12, 2005

Answers

Chris..May I assume here that you and your spouse are Catholic? Or at least one of you is Catholic?

Your Catholic friend who married outside the Catholic Church, (unless she received some sort of dispensation from her Bishop) is in a marriage which is not recognized as a valid marriage by the Church. This is why she cannot be a godmother to your child. A Godparent is supposed to promise to faithfully bring up your child in the Catholic Church. If this person has already gone against the Church herself by marrying outside of it against the teachings of the Church, how could she hope to fullfill that promise?

If you are Catholics, why would you want your child baptized in another church?

I am certain that the people whom you wish to have as godparents are lovely people..or else you wouldn't have chosen them..yet the ONLY function of godparents is to promise to see to it that the child is raised in the faith. If at least ONE of the godparents isn't a Catholic who is practicing that faith, how could they possibly hope to teach it to your child?

The question which you seem to be asking is which is more important: 1. that we have our child baptized in the Episcopalian church so we can have the godparents that we want.. 2. That we have our child baptized in the Catholic church since we are Catholics.

Is that what you're saying??????

-- Lesley (martchas@hotmail.com), February 12, 2005.

Chris, ask your priest if he will let you have godparents (family or friends) who live elsewhere and are unable to come to the baptism, but will be godparents by proxy. My wife and I did this when we moved to a new State just before our son was baptized. The proxy godparents' names are on the baptismal certificate although two members of the parish (who ran the baptism preparation program)deputised for them at the actual baptism. (Their names are not on the certificate.)

-- Steve (55555@aol.com), February 13, 2005.