In the eyes of the Catholic Church is brain injured person competent be a godfather?

H

heretohelp

Registered User
Messages
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hi there,
This is an odd question, but i want to ask my brother in law to be godfather to our soon to be born baby but he is paralysed and brain injured, now he can communicate but can forget things easily and forgets peoples names etc .
My question is , in the eyes of the church would he competent to be a godfather?? i feel embarassed asking the priest .
Thanks in advance for any replys
Heretohelp
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

In the eyes of the church we re all Gods children and are therefore all equal...
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

I can't offer any practical advice but I would be disgusted if he wasn't deemed 'acceptable' by the church as a godfather. A lot of people ask the child's grandparents to be godparents and this isn't a problem, even if the grandparent in question may be very aged and might reasonably not be expected to be around until the child reaches adulthood. Go for it, I say.
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

my brother is godparent for my son and he is mildly mentally handicapped. i never even considered asking the priest if it was ok.
i imagine your brother in law will be delighted to be asked
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

Hopefully times have changed for the better but a good few years back my sister in law, who is autistic, was not allowed be a godparent. The logic at the time was that she would not be able to carry out the duties of a godparent. Strangely enough, the same priest previously had no problem allowing her act as bridesmaid.
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

My sister in law is down syndrome and is Godmother for her brothers child.
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

Thanks for all the replies, seems like it should be okay to ask him to be godfather !!!
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

I really think you should check with the priest first. If you ask , and then the priest says on , it would be very embarrassing.
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

true, I may bite the bullet and just ask, maybe different priests have different views on this.
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

Do yourself, your sister and the rest of both families a major favour and ask him would he like to be the Godfather of your soon to be born child. These people are human and have feelings as well. Whilst I'm not a Christian I am unable to msee any good reason why the PP would say no.In fact in most cases the priest should be very happy with the situation.
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

I see our posts crossed, I wanted to draw attention to 12(1) only, which reads

"be appointed by the candidate for baptism, or by the parents"

so the selection process belongs with the parents!!!!
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

oh shaddup........ye smartass *kicks ye*

Just wanted to be sure to be sure *cough*
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

mercman said:
Do yourself, your sister and the rest of both families a major favour and ask him would he like to be the Godfather of your soon to be born child. These people are human and have feelings as well.
Click to expand...

Agree with Mercman. Surely its up to the parents who they see fit to act as a Guardian of their child, no matter what handicaps afflict them.
 
Re: Can a brain injured person be a godfather ??

You may see the baptism as more of a social event and the selection of godparent as driven by social and family reasons, but the church, unsurprisingly, sees it as primarily religious and the godparent as fulfilling a duty of religious care. The truth for you is probably somewhere in between.
Definitely ask the priest. He's more than likely come across this situation before and may even have something useful to contribute!
 
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