Do you have to be christened to be godparent in catholic church?

[Chloe55]

I have been asked to be a godparent for my sil, my dh will also be godparent. She knows I am not religious but she sees being godparent as being responsible for her children, should anything happen which, after discussion dh and I have agreed with this and are flattered to be asked. However, I was at baby group today and somebody mentioned that I would need to be christened myself in the catholic church, is this true?

[DumbledoresGirl]

I am RC and as far as I can remember, the only requirement when picking godparents is that at least one must be a Catholic. So by that reckoning, as long as your sil has picked one Catholic, you can be whatever you want, basptised or not.

[dubnobasswithmyheadman]

I am christened (c of e) but am non religious. I am also godparent to my best friend's ds, who is Catholic, so afaik you don't have to be christened in the catholic church.

[Chloe55]

Ah that's ok, dh is catholic, thanks.

[dubnobasswithmyheadman]

Dg I think you are right about one of the godparents having to be Catholic

[DumbledoresGirl]

I definitely remember the priest telling me that one godparent must be catholic, but what I am not so sure about is how committed to Christianity in general the other godparents should be.

[LeahE]

In theory all Catholic godparents need to be Catholic. But the vast majority of parishes overlook that and only insist that one of the godparents is. Because that's an informal kind of fudging of the rules, the precise extent to which they are fudged can vary. The most common rule I've seen is that non-Catholic godparents must at least have been christened in some Christian denomination (e.g. C of E), but at other parishes they may not ask at all.

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

I would agree with DumbledoresGirl in that one of them must be RC.

[Bugsy2]

LeahE has summed up my understanding of the situation having had two babies baptised Catholic.