XOXO

Jenny you are absolutely right. The role of a 'GodParent' is to take over the role as a parents in the event of the parents death and to continue teaching the child to live according to God. If they do not believe in God or the church the could not possibly fulfill this obligation.

I was not raised with a religion because my parents are of two different religions and could never choose. I have my own beliefs and I am perfectly happy being involved in the lives of my nieces (on my husband's side) without any title. I hope that your sister can enjoy that, too. It is unfair to put that stress on you. You are still asking family! The baby is just as much your DH's as it is yours! I hope that your mom and sister realize that. It seems like this is similar to wedding planning in that it is supposed to be one of the happiest times, but it causes so many arguments! Good luck on this one and congratulations.

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Posted by Karsav7096

Jenny you are absolutely right. The role of a 'GodParent' is to take over the role as a parents in the event of the parents death and to continue teaching the child to live according to God. If they do not believe in God or the church the could not possibly fulfill this obligation.

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ITA!!!

Well, I am not religious, at all, so here is my devil's advocate opinion, which I hope you can value.

Regardless of bringing up the child according to God's will, or whatever, the purpose of a godparent is to raise them, if, God forbid, something should happen to you and DH. So I would completely take religion out of the equation and decide who would be the best 'parents' to your child should anything happen to you guys.

In this case, it obviously seems like the answer would not be your sister, regardless of her religious beliefs...no offense, of course.

But if that was not the case, and you had a choice between two people who would both be just as good 'parents' to you child, and one was Catholic and one was not, but still a sound, good person, just not Catholic, and also your family....well, that would be a much harder choice. I wouldn't discount someone if their ONLY 'fault' was not being Catholic. But in this case, it's obviously not the case.

First, many Catholic churches require the godparent to be Catholic. And you are supposed to baptize the baby as early as possible, god forbid something happens, so it is not practical to wait 10 months for your sister to obtain her sacraments.

To Ali's point, about raising the child - godparents are expected to look after the religious wellbeing of the child, and ensure he is taught about the church and it's beliefs. But picking a godparent does not make that person the legal guardian in the event something happens to the parents. That need not be the godparents (but it certainly could be). My godparents are from two different sides of the family, so I couldn't have gone to both of them, and if something happened to my parents, my sisters and I all would have gone to our grandparents. You put it in the will, where they go in the event the parent's both predecease the child while it is a minor.