to be upset at not being asked to be godparent AGAIN?

[superhero]

The story is: raised catholic, first holy communion, confirmation and then age 22, moved to Israel and converted to Judaism for the sake of my (then)future children. Since converting, not really practicing and have a xmas tree every year.

My brother who is anti-religion, wound up marrying a french catholic. At the baptism of their first child, they asked my younger, irresponsible brother to be the godparent. Which hurt.

Now for the #2 I am being overlooked again. Is it because I am Jewish? Am I being unreasonable to think that is a crappy reason not to ask me?

[MaryBS]

I think you have to be practising Catholic to be a godparent. I was raised Catholic but am now Anglican, so presumably could not be a godparent either (although "once a Catholic always a Catholic", I am not "in good standing")

[rougemont]

yes, you need to be a practising Catholic (=being baptized and still legally part of the church) to be a godparent. some catholic priests are being even so strict that they do not even allow non-catholics into the chancel (especially in France/Germany).
So we decided for our children to have two godparents: one for the church and one "private" one... at family gatherings we obviously don't make any difference between the godparents.On the whole it works well, but you need to adress this issue openly within the family, otherwise there will be hurt feelings. And you are not being unreasonable. Good luck.

[BalloonSlayer]

You need to make the declaration that you "believe and trust in Jesus Christ" as the only son of God [sic].

Surely if you are Jewish that would go against what you believe?

The godparents' job is to guide and support the child into maturity in the Christian/catholic faith. Your conversion would suggest that you are perhaps not the best person for that particular job, loving auntie though you undoubtedly are.

I would love to have my sister as godmother to one of my DCs. However, she is an atheist and thinks it's all balls, so I have never asked her.

[clapton]

I'm Catholic and having my daughter baptised very soon. One godparent has to be a practising Catholic if your choose to have more than one godparent it does not matter what faith they are. So I was advised anyway.

[SqueakyPop]

How can you encourage a godchild to have a living faith in Jesus Christ, and to pray to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, when you are not Christian?

You are veing very unreasonable.

[McDreamy]

We have done the same as you Clapton. I have 2 children each with 3 godparents, only one for each child is a practising catholic.

Different priests baptised my children and neither of them had a problem with non catholics being godparents as long as one of the 3 was and both priests insisted that each godparent was christened but not necessarily in a catholic church.

Not sure if that even helps you superhero - I think probably not. So sorry this is hurting you, I think I would also feel a bit hurt if my brothers did this to me

[vjg13]

YABU any Catholic priest would refuse a Jewish godparent so it's not a crap reason. Being not Christened is not the same as being Jewish.

[superhero]

Yeah, I think I could handle it better if my brother and his wife were devout catholics. But fact is that they never go to church and this baptism is more about ticking the box. My brother doesn't even believe in God! So therefore in this case I think that godparents are less about instructing the child in the celestial divinities, and more about picking people who would help the child through his life.

And true, I probably couldn't handle standing in church pledging to bring the child up in Jesus Christ, but I like rougemont's idea of the PRIVATE godparent. I could be the stelth godparent!! I just think it would be nice to have been asked.

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

DS was baptised yesterday, he has 2 catholics and 2 non catholics as Godparents.