You Can’t Refuse?
Can anyone explain to me the exact meaning of “godfather” and “godmother” and other such “god-names”? No, I’m not talking about the mobster-styled godfather stuff; what I’m referring to is, for example, when someone says, “Oh, my god-niece turned 3 years old last week!” What exactly does that mean? Are there rules involved? Is there paperwork? Legal requirements? Help me out here.
January 25th, 2005 at 6:32 am
We are Godparents to one of my best friends’ sons. We are all very close and I predicted what she was having before she ever had the baby. (They didn’t want to know the sex.) As soon as she came home from the hospital, the baby & I immediately bonded, and they would often bring him to me to get him to sleep, calm down, whatever. LOL, my friends husband joked that he just likes my nice fluffy “pillows”. Anyway, they asked us to be his Godparents and we happily accepted. Bear in mind that I am Pagan (husband is a Christian), but I love them and I love this boy, immensely, so I had no qualms about attending the baptismal and Godparent-naming ceremony at their church. It was a big to-do. We stood up in front of the church congregation and their pastor dedicated the boy, and then rededicated him to US as his Godparents. You essentially take an oath that you’ll love and protect the child throughout his lifetime, be there for him, and raise him in the faith to which he and the parents are committed (Lutheran). I have no problems with that, either, because I don’t influence my own daughter’s beliefs in any way. I think legally speaking, were anything to happen to them, under normal circumstances we would gain custody of the boy and raise him in our home; however, he has 2 other siblings to which we are not Godparents, but we are committed to them nonetheless, so I wouldn’t take him and not the others, you know? We love them as equally. Hope that answered your Q’s!
January 25th, 2005 at 8:29 am
What Asherah said and also to add that at the child’s Baptism, you are basically taking responsibility for the child’s spiritual growth, in other words, until the child becomes an adult in the eyes of the Church (in Catholicism it’s Confirmation in the 8th Grade), you are the scapegoat for all the child’s sins. If you don’t believe me, ask your local pastor.
For obvious reasons, I am never called to be a God-parent anymore.
January 25th, 2005 at 10:09 am
It’s a spiritual, and therefore, mostly ceremonial position. Usually it is friends (from church).
In any case, it’s an honor to be asked.
January 25th, 2005 at 10:16 am
It’s also called a “sponsor”. I’ve never head of a “god-niece” - and I research genealogy - but maybe it’s some relative’s (bro or sis) godchild?
I was raised Catholic and have a godmother & a godfather - and I still call them that - even though I’m a heathen, my godfather is also my uncle, and my godmother is now a Latter Day Saint. When I was confirmed - we were only in the 5th grade - Catholic school - and I had a sponsor - who I also call my godmother.
A few years ago we (my Lutheran Husband & I) were asked to be god-parents to one of his cousins sons. In a Catholic Church. This boggled my mind. He’s Lutheran, and I’m nada. But like Asherah said - we love the little guy - so I could understand the “concept”. Anyhow, it turns out that we were two of a whole collection of godparents including one by proxy - who lives in the Phillipines. This boggled my mind more… That whole thing is definitely not Kosher! If a pastor, priest - fill in the blank - was truly concerned with the spiritual responsiblity of a child I would think that he/she would want to know the spiritual beliefs (or not) of these “godparent”.
January 25th, 2005 at 10:20 am
And like easycure said - it is mostly ceremonial - I imagine that it differs a bit from one congregation to another. And I agree that it can be considered an honor. But I don’t think that legally - godparents have any right to a child if orphaned, unless that was in some wills…
January 25th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
Speaking as a (literal) student of history, I can say that the office of “Godparent” was a legally binding position at one point in time. This is back when the Catholic Church had it’s own canonical law courts, and Church law was given as much weight (usually more) than the law handed down by the local king and his ministers.
It’s usually assumed that the Godparents are agreeing to adopt the child if it’s birth parents are killed, but that’s not really the case. Instead the GP’s are supposed to “founder” the child, or raise it in a foster capacity, until it reaches legal age. The GP’s were allowed to manage any property or wealth that the child inherited. (I think you can guess that the GP’s invariably would claim that all the orphan’s money had been spent on raising the little urchin, if the child had any money coming to it in the first place.)
Nowadays, of course, the office of Godparent doesn’t mean jack. It’s not legally binding, it confers no real-world obligations or rights. Moos says that it’s mostly ceremonial, and I’d agree with him in part. The part I’d disagree with is when he said that it was “mostly” ceremonial.
James
January 25th, 2005 at 4:52 pm
When a baby gets baptized in the Catholic Church, the godparents recite the vow to resist Satan/evil as the baby cannot recite it himself. When the child is around 11 or 12 they reconfirm that vow themselves through the sarcament of Confirmation. Godparents also help in the spiritual nurturing of the child but have no legal guardianship rights in the event of the parent(s) death unless the parent(s) specifically named them guardians in a will. Contrary to what Penda said you are not a scapegoat for anyone’s sins if you are a godparent. (I don’t come here alot but seems like every time I do she is spouting off about something she knows absolutely nothing about.) Anyway Christians believe that on Judgement Day everyone will answer for their own sins to the one true God, regardless of if you had a godparent or not.
March 1st, 2005 at 10:25 pm
I would like to be a godmother. Please respond if interested. thank you.