This is Question and Answer #7 in a series on Godparents. Each day I will answer a question. If you have your own question, please post it as a comment to this post. Thank you.
Question #7: Can my gay friend be a godparent at a Catholic baptism?
If your friend is living in defiance of Church teaching on sexuality, then he is not permitted to be a godparent. Simply being attracted to people of the same sex would NOT disqualify the person however. It’s only if they are openly opposing the Church.
A reader of this blog posed to me the following question (below is my answer):
ReplyDeletePhil I have been reading your blog lately and I find the Godparent stuff interesting.
I noticed you mentioned about a gay friend being able to be a Godparent and the answer is:
"If your friend is living in defiance of Church teaching on sexuality, then he is not permitted to be a godparent. Simply being attracted to people of the same sex would NOT disqualify the person however. It’s only if they are openly opposing the Church."
I have a follow-up question. We are all sinners so, what draws the line between being openly opposing the Church and just struggling with sins like everyone else? For example, if someone lives with her boyfriend (possibly doing the premarital thing), should those people not be Godparents? Are they seen as directly opposing the Church? I am wondering where the line is drawn, do you know?
MY ANSWER:
I guess the line would be between openly opposing and struggling with. if a person is saying "I really want to live in accordance with God's laws as expressed through the church. I sometimes find them difficult, I sometimes fail and then I go to a priest for confession. I make an honest effort to avoid committing the same sins again. But this is something I'm struggling with."
That's a lot different than "I do X, and the church is opposed to it, but I really think the church needs to reconsider this teaching. This is the modern day and this is very old fashioned. So even though the church is opposed to this, I don't think it's wrong, and I will continue to do it."
the second person isn't struggling or trying to conform to the church and is therefore not in union with the church and should not be a godparent.