Godparents-presents for godchild's siblings?

seven-day-weekend

Mojisola wrote: »

Did the priest know you weren't a Catholic? It used to be that only RCs were allowed to be godparents.

My God-daughter was christened in a Catholic church. Her parents are RC and Anglican so there were priests of both denominations there. AFAIR, only one Godparent was RC and I am neither RC nor Anglican, although I am a Christian (and yes, the priests did know). I had to promise to help her parents to bring her up in the Christian faith. No problem there.

andygb

Mojisola wrote: »

Did the priest know you weren't a Catholic? It used to be that only RCs were allowed to be godparents.

I am a godparent to two C of E children, whose parents do not go to church, and this is from 15 (and 13) years ago. I was chosen because I was bought up RC, and the parents assumed that I was a "God fearing" person of good character.
As far as I am concerned, the whole thing is a load of old tosh, but unfortunately the parents would not take "No!" for an answer.
I think some parents only do this in order to get extra presents for their children, because many of them are in no way religious - so what is the point?

Mojisola

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

My God-daughter was christened in a Catholic church. Her parents are RC and Anglican so there were priests of both denominations there. AFAIR, only one Godparent was RC and I am neither RC nor Anglican, although I am a Christian (and yes, the priests did know). I had to promise to help her parents to bring her up in the Christian faith. No problem there.

There only has to be one godparent - a second one is optional - so the other one would have satisfied the conditions for the RC baptism.

Mojisola

andygb wrote: »

I am a godparent to two C of E children, whose parents do not go to church, and this is from 15 (and 13) years ago. I was chosen because I was bought up RC, and the parents assumed that I was a "God fearing" person of good character.

Did you have to make the promises about turning to Christ as your saviour, etc?

As far as I am concerned, the whole thing is a load of old tosh, but unfortunately the parents would not take "No!" for an answer.
I think some parents only do this in order to get extra presents for their children, because many of them are in no way religious - so what is the point?

Seriously! What would have happened if you hadn't turned up on the day?

Saturnalia

notanewuser wrote: »

But you had to denounce Satan, surely? How can you denounce something you don't believe in?

You renounce evil, at least in the C of E you do.

My sister and I had the same godparents so this never came up, mind you relatives all got the birthday kid a present and gave the other some sweets, a comic, or something else small until we were about 6 or so. I didn't know until recently that siblings don't usually have the same godparents.

To me, if you are godparent to one sibling, you give yours a birthday present (if you want to!) and the other children's godparents gift to them (again, if they want to!) - and if they choose to give something to the others too, that is completely up to them. Carry on doing whatever you are comfortable with.

Shame on the gimme-pig parents though! :mad: How to raise spoilt kids 101.

My godson is also my nephew so thankfully not an issue. (A has his parents' siblings, L has the 3 closest friends of the family, A calls them Auntie & Uncle and they've always given birthday and Christmas pressies to him.)

MrSmartprice

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

How on earth can you be a Godparent if you are an atheist. Obviously you didn't intend to keep the promises you made at the christening.

Well, I'm a godparent too, and it wasn't a problem for me. Any 'promises' I made were worthless anyway, since it would be to a non-existent entity, so what does it matter?

I'm sure I have related it before, but I did it for good reason. I was managing a football team, and the goalkeeper's son was being 'done' on the afternoon of an important match. His churchie wife didn't want him to play beforehand. I promised to get hi back in time, but she said that to ensure I did, she wanted me as a godparent. The football was more important so I agreed. All worked out well, as we won.

I have never bothered to send the child, (now about 30) any cards or presents. He was a horrible child and grew into a horrible adult!

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I will rephrase to say I don't see how you can make promises to do something you don't believe in, nor how you can keep those promises.

I suppose if you make sure she goes to church and has a good founding in Christian knowledge, you could do that, but would you, if you do not believe it to be true?

If I make a promise to someone, I tend to keep it. But I didn't promise anybody anything. Frankly, I wasn't even listening.

What on earth would it have to do with a godparent whether a child went to church or not? Forcing children into religion is a disgraceful thing to do.

Dunroamin

MrSmartprice wrote: »

Well, I'm a godparent too, and it wasn't a problem for me. Any 'promises' I made were worthless anyway, since it would be to a non-existent entity, so what does it matter?

I'm sure I have related it before, but I did it for good reason. I was managing a football team, and the goalkeeper's son was being 'done' on the afternoon of an important match. His churchie wife didn't want him to play beforehand. I promised to get hi back in time, but she said that to ensure I did, she wanted me as a godparent. The football was more important so I agreed. All worked out well, as we won.

I have never bothered to send the child, (now about 30) any cards or presents. He was a horrible child and grew into a horrible adult!



If I make a promise to someone, I tend to keep it. But I didn't promise anybody anything. Frankly, I wasn't even listening.

What on earth would it have to do with a godparent whether a child went to church or not? Forcing children into religion is a disgraceful thing to do.

Hypocrite.

MrSmartprice

Dunroamin wrote: »

Hypocrite.

Not a hypocrite at all. They knew why I was doing it. The priority was having my goalkeeper available for the match, so I did what it took.

As I tried to explain, the church part meant absolutely nothing anyway. Anything to do with any religion has no meaning or consequence to me whatsoever. It was no different from an atheist attending the church wedding or funeral of someone they knew.

The real hypocrites are those who have church weddings etc, despite not believing a word of it. Why bother?

notanewuser

Saturnalia wrote: »

You renounce evil, at least in the C of E you do.



)

Went to my first (and last ) catholic christening 3 weeks ago (under sufferance). Was very definitely satan, multiple times.

seven-day-weekend

MrSmartprice, I know I have said this before, why be a Godparent if it means nothing to you, why not let someone to whom it DOES mean something take that position?

I find it difficult to believe that you could make all those declarations knowing you had no intention of keeping them.

When I was a Godparent I had to declare that I believed in God, that I followed Jesus as his Son, that I renounced evil and I had to promise to help the parents to bring the child up to know the Christian faith. No way could I have said any of that when I was an atheist. In fact I turned down a request for me to be a godparent when I was twenty because at that point I did not believe and could not in all conscience commit to the declarations.

I'm afraid I DO think it is hypocritical of you, like Dunroamin does. If it meant as little to the parents of the child as it did to you, then the whole thing is just a mockery.