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Parenting
New Godparent - need to bless my marriage
Hello all:
i generally post on the nest but thought this may be a good place to ask the following question. My H and i just got married in May. Our marriage is not recognized in the Catholic church (though a reverend married me). My nephew was born today (healthy and beautiful!) and his proactive parents already set a date for his christening (early Oct!). I now need to get my marriage blessed in order to stand up as the godmother.
i am wondering if anyone has experienced this before. Any insights would be wonderful. Thanks! danielle
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Re: New Godparent - need to bless my marriage
I guess you have a very strict priest performing the baptism? My brother is DS's godfather and wasn't married in the Catholic Church (in fact, he's the non-practicing Catholic of the two - only one of the set needs to be).
I would definitely check with the priest and make sure this needs to be done.
My boss had his marriage blessed in the church - I don't think it was that difficult a process.
We got married by an Orthodox priest, and had a Catholic one there, too. He just performed a short blessing once the rest of the service was done. Took about 4 minutes.
DS - December 2006
DD - December 2008
Did you priest say you have to get your marriage blessed? I'm just curious, I've never heard of this before but I guess it is possible depending on the priest.
If you do have to have it done, I heard it is pretty simple but I'm not sure what is involved. Can the church where the baptism is do the blessing or do you belong to another church?
IME, the only way to get a marriage "recognized" by the Catholic church is to be married in a Catholic church by a priest. I had friends who had two weddings because they wanted a fun outdoor wedding with a JOP and then did a smaller ceremony with just them, their parents and the priest so their marriage would be recognized. They also had to go through all the same precana stuff everyone else goes through that gets married in a Catholic wedding (it changes per church but there's usually certain requirements).
That said, as many of the pp said, we've only ever had to have one practicing Catholic of the two godparents. That was at two different churches too since the girls were baptized at our old church and DS at the new one. In fact, DS's godfather isn't even Catholic. Technically the church calls him a "Christian observer" rather than "godfather" but we call him DS's godfather. His wife is DS's godmother and they do go to church together and regularly. He never converted and doesn't intend to. Also, my brother is confirmed Catholic but not practicing and he's DD#1's godfather. My BFF is her godmother and is practicing so she's the one who got the letter from her church. You might ask your sister's church exactly what they require from the godparents. It might just be a letter from your (Catholic) church (if you have one) that you're in good standing or that you took whatever baptismal class your church requires to meet their standards for godparents.
thanks all! this is really helpful. i too heard only one of the godparents had to have all sacraments in the church. The godfather is my brother and we both had confirmation in the church.
I would love to call the church but my other brother, father of the baby, is trying to have the christening asap and is now in talks with three churches...crazy. So once he decides i can make a call to determine the process.
thanks again.
I think the issue you are running into is the fact (from what am I reading into this) is that you were raised Catholic (confirmed and all) however, you went married in the Catholic Church--- therefore as the CC sees it you are no longer a practicing Catholic. For my DD, I wanted a particular SIL to be Godmother and she wanted to be as well- however since her marriage isn't recognised as a Catholic one she couldn't be since she had been raised Catholic but was no longer seen as one (even though she claims to be Catholic still- just isn't a practicing one.)
The issuse is with having the paperwork. One can call themselves Catholic (and attend Mass, etc- being Catholic) However if the officical Church documents have you down as missing xyz then you can't be a godparent.
And its true a {non-Catholic} Christian can be a Christian Witness (technical term for a non-Catholic Godparent)- but someone who 'was' Catholic but now is not (either in reality or just according to the paperwork) cannot be a Godparent/Christian Witness. Basically because that person "should know better" whereas the non-Catholic Christian "just hasn't seen the light yet"
HTH