Expert: Griff Ruby - 3/9/2010

Question
QUESTION: I'd like a catholic baptized individual to be a Christian witness for my son at our catholic church?  Can this occur and if not, why?

ANSWER: Godparents are supposed to be baptized Catholics in good standing, as no one else can qualify to serve in that role.  Remember, the Godparent has the duty to see to it that the one baptized is raised in the Faith even if the parents cannot do it for whatever reason (their death, their apostasy, their captivity, etc.), and this is a most solemn obligation.
Since you are asking for a "catholic baptized individual" to be the Godparent, I don't see what the problem would be.  Every Catholic is a Christian, and if he participates as Godparent (or Sponsor) at any sacramental event, he also serves as a kind of witness, so there is all the "Christian witness" you could possibly need.
Or perhaps I have not understood your question?  Please let me know if you have a further question.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I want to fully understand because I know when I baptized my 1st daughter in a completely different state and catholic church, they were fine with only taking documents from one of the 2 godparents/sponsors/witness.

So in this case........I have one sponsor chosen that is fully initiated catholic (all sacraments) and would like the other one to be "a christian witness" since they only have been Baptized Catholic.  But accordingly to the what I have been told, this can not be done because Baptized Only Catholics can not be a Christian Witness in the Catholic church.  I do not understand that because...they would rather take another baptized demonation...say a Lutheran as a Christin Witness, but not a Catholic Christian Witness.

If the purpose of a witness or a sponsor at a baptism is to renew their baptism vows, this "baptized Only Catholic" could do that.

I am trying to seek out rationales because I am quite upset that the views of the Catholic church are so interpretative and am gathering support to speak with our priest.

Can you shead any further light?  If a Baptized Only Catholic who commits to raising and providing Catholic guidance to my child and will be a "Christian witness" along with the technical godparent who received ALL their sacraments....should that be enough for the priest for my child's baptism?

Answer
I guess I am still not quite understanding all of what you are trying to do here.  At least I know "more" than the first time.  It seems you want a fallen-away Catholic to be one of the Godparents.  It really doesn't matter what manner in which they have fallen away, whether by living in sin (adulterous relationship), alcoholism, or some other religion, I really don't see how such a person could possibly serve as a "Christian witness" under any circumstances or for any purpose whatsoever.
As for what happened in another state, perhaps the question of the other person's background never came up, or else if they were simply lifelong from some other church then this question would be different.
By all real possible valid Catholic rules, both Godparents must be practicing Catholics.  That many congregations, attempting to pass themselves off as Catholic but in this proving false or at least criminally weak to that ideal, have tolerated that one of the two Godparents be anything else is bizarre and highly irregular, to say the least.  At most, a non-Catholic spouse of a practicing Catholic Godparent may be present, and (perhaps) participate in the ceremony in some limited way, with another individual also present serving as the actual second Godparent.  At least that's how it's supposed to be.  But I know that allowing a non-Catholic to simply be one of the Godparents is a commonly found and widely accepted scenario today, strange as it seems.  In a similar manner, living together unmarried or even in a perverted union also seems to be commonly found and widely accepted today.  That doesn't make it right.
Given that, it seems your question is why it would be that a non-Catholic simply born and raised in some non-Catholic church should be acceptable where a non-Catholic who was baptized as a Catholic but fell away should not be accepted.  I think the issue here is one of departure.  To "leave" is a vile act, at least from a truly Catholic perspective, so a baptized Catholic who ceases to be a Catholic has defected, whereas someone simply originally baptized elsewhere and simply remaining there is no actual defector.
What I am not getting is that it seems that you have some particular person you wish to have as the second Godparent, but they are disqualified, and you are really committed to it being this particular person, instead of simply finding someone else, getting it done, and then getting on with life.  What seems to be getting left out of the question, as asked, is the part where one should have said something along the lines of "I really want So-and-so to be one of the Godparents because of Such-and-such (but they tell me this person is disqualified and won't allow him/her to be a Godparent, whereas somewhat similar persons have not been disqualified, why is that?)"  If I am wrong and you really don't have some particular person in mind, then I really don't see what the problem is, or the point of the question - why not just find some other person who meets their criteria and be done with it?  They can easily enough provide some parish volunteer if you don't personally know anyone qualified.
Finally, there is the mystery of the nature of this person (or sort of person?).  You describe him/her as "a Baptized Only Catholic who commits to raising and providing Catholic guidance to my child."  How much "Catholic guidance" can they possibly provide if they are not living a practical Catholic life?  How can they "provide Catholic guidance to my child," since example is by far the greater teacher than mere spoken words.  But if they really are living a practical Catholic life and thereby providing a good Catholic example both in words and deeds, then how is that person, in any way shape or form, the least bit different from the "technical godparent who received ALL their sacraments" (the essential and important Godparent doctrinally speaking, and yet the one that seems to you, as I glean from the disrespectful language of that phrase, to be some mere technicality)?
Or are you expecting this "commitment" to somehow change this "Baptized only Catholic" into a practicing Catholic (perhaps through some renewal of baptismal vows)?  If that were the case then it could never be acceptable.  If you dated someone who could not get their act together, would you nevertheless marry that person, hoping that the "commitment" of marriage would somehow change them into someone who WOULD now have their act together?  Seems a real gamble to me, and the Church could never tolerate such a gamble in the selection of a Godparent.
Please feel free to follow this up again in order that we may get at the root of the matter and truly understand each other.