Baptism Question - Maryland Heights,MO

The purpose of a Godparent is to support you and your husband in the christian upbringing of your children. They pray for you and your child, encourage you to bring them up in faith, gently remind you to take your family to church, pray, read the bible, worship, participate in christian fellowship opportunities, etc. If family members don't believe the same as you...use friends as Godparents. Also, one each is probably fine as well. In our case...we didn't have a male and female on both sides for our first child's baptism (that we thought would take this responsibilty seriously) so we chose two females which happend to be family members. For our second child, one of our male family members started to take his faith more seriously and so we chose him to be a Godparent along with a female friend. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer, but I would suggest you pick whomever you feel is going to best support you in your faith walk. Perhaps...if you are getting them baptized the same day, they could have the same two Godparents or same single Godparent. Don't just try to make family members happy by "naming" them a Godparent. They should want the responsibility that goes along with being a Godparent! We all need that constant support when bringing up our children. Good luck and God bless.

The pool for Godparents was pretty small for us also. In the end several of my kids have the same Godparents. My husband's family isn't Catholic but we always invite them and after the ceremony we have a small reception at our house. His family has nearly always attended and seem to enjoy it.

My daughter has only one godparent, my sister. No big deal.

You only need one godparent, and s/he could be the godparent to all your kids. All you need is one Catholic godparent. All godparent's need to be Christian, but one must be Catholic. If there is really no one you know, I suggest you work with your priest or parish. I am sure they could help figure something out, even have the priest as a godparent.

I don't think you need to "include" his family, unless of course they are Christian and you want to have one as a godparent.. Invite whoever you want to the church. Let them his mother or a close friend help choose the gown, etc. Give the grandparents corsages or boutinieres. Plan a small luncheon afterward. Otherwise, they should just attend to help you celebrate.

The parish will have a baptism class for you to attend. Go to that and you will learn more about the process and what is required.

Our Catholic Church told us that at least one of the godparents has to be Catholic. Luckily, my husband has a HUGE Catholic family so we didn't have a hard time.

The purpose of godparents (as I understand it) is to help facilitate bringing your child up IN THE FAITH. That may include (in some rare cases) caring for your children by proxy in your stead if you should die prematurely, but the primary role is regarding your faith. If your spouse's family does not have the same faith nor adhere to it, then they cannot possibly fulfill the role as a godparent to your children. We have this issue on BOTH sides.

To include them, you just have to invite them to come. They don't have to be a "participant". You might even find that they are a bit offended by the baptism itself, depending upon what faith they practice. Many protestant denominations don't believe baptism is receiving grace from God, but instead, think that it is something the person does to show their faith, and don't believe nor support infant baptism (nor baptism before a child is old enough to "make a decision" about their faith). My parents are of a denomination that holds that belief. They attended the confirmation service of our eldest (we are Lutheran). It so happened that that morning's service on Pentecost included a baptism (infant). It was a WONDERFUL service. A newborn being baptized into the faith, as later in the service older children took their first Holy Communion, while the church embraced them all. There was a huge celebration/reception after for everyone (the 6 confirmands and families and the infant's family as well hosted the entire congregation), and afterwards, my parents commented privately to us (negatively) about the baptism. They just have a totally different understanding of what goes on in baptism, so they think infant baptism is wrong.

You can be nice to them easily enough, but you do not have to include them as participants to be nice. Send them a nice invitation (hand deliver perhaps? or go out to dinner with them?) and reserve seats in front. That should do it.
:)

When we had our 5y/o baptized, we were in a similar situation. We were told by almost all churches that you only need to have 1 godparent (& that person can be the same for all of your children). If you don't have anyone, then the church would help you meet someone at the church to hopefully choose, but fortunately we didn't have to go that route since we knew 1 Catholic friend who was willing to be his godmother. The chosen godparent doesn't even need to be at the ceremony (ours couldn't make it, so my non-Catholic brother was the proxy godmother for the ceremony, although it sounded odd because of the gender difference). Now we're trying to decide if we want the same godmother for our younger son or if we want to choose another friend of ours to fill that role. Not being the Catholic parent, I keep putting it off, unfortunately...

You have good advice but I also wanted to add that we baptised both our kids Orthodox and my husband's family is Catholic so although we go to different churches, they were of course included in the ceremony (as guests) and the celebration. For both my kids we did a big luncheon afterwards to celebrate where we invited all the family and our closest friends, it's a pretty traditional practice, but as Greeks, we do everything with food! ;)

one godparent of the faith is the requirement.

I am not Catholic, but my DH & sons are. My older son has 2 godmothers: my SIL who is of the faith & my sis who is not. My younger son's godmother is the same SIL & my DH's best friend who was raised in the faith, but has since chosen another.

Oh, & I'm godmother to my 1st cousin. As I said, I'm not Catholic....but his 5 godfathers are!

You only need one godparent, so no problem there. Your husband's family can be included by being invited, being in some pictures, and maybe a lunch. I'm sure that if they do not want to come, they won't.

all three of my kids have the same Godparents. and i have three, two sisters and a brother in law.

my ex husbands family was luthern and my family is catholic and at my church only one god parent needs to be a practicing catholic so my oldest daughters have one from each side as their godparents. I think you definitly should include your husbands family, catholic or not. I try to teach my kids christian values in general. A love for god and the church and teaching kidness and genoristy for others is all you need in my book to be an awesome godparent and my kids luthern god parents are some of the best people i know.

We're having a similar problem now. We currently only know 4 people that are in good standing as catholics that can be godparents, and we are not sure we want these 4 people to be godparents, but we are having twins. My husband and I have decided to have the same set of godparents for the twins, and I may possibly pick my sister again, and she is my daughter's godmother, so she will godparent to all my kids. In our church only one has to be a practicing catholic and the other has to be a practicing Christian. For us, godparent is more of an honorary role and I don't expect the godparents to truly be responsible for the spiritual upbringing of my kids, it's our job, and if we pass away, the godparents aren't even going to be our kids legal guardians so they will have a limited role then too.

You should check with your church. Some churches have more strict rules than others, even within the same faith. Someone on my hubby's side is married to a girl who is catholic. They had to have at least one godparent that is catholic. I read on this site that their church (also catholic) required both to be catholic and if you also wanted someone who wasn't you would be the "official" godparents that were catholic and "witnesses" who weren't. Talk to the priest to see what they require and how he is willing to incorporate non-catholics.