Very hard to do when you don't have (m)any friends, your chapel is super tiny, one/both spouse's family is remote and/or estranged, or one/both spouse's family is non-Catholic or novus ordo. It's even harder when multiple of these things are true.
Then there's the question of what godparents must do. One rather scrupulous individual basically thinks she has to be literally ready to take the child in today and raise him (materially and spiritually) Catholic, or else she can't accept to be godmother for anyone, even serious Catholics. Similarly, some believe that God will judge them as strictly as He will judge the parent, despite the fact that the parent obviously has much more latitude and opportunity to build up or destroy the child spiritually. A godparent, even in the best of cases, has minimal input on the child's life, how he will be disciplined and raised, etc. How many hours per month does the average godparent get with his godchild?
My thought is that if being a godparent were that serious of a burden, with no merit or upside for offering the service to our fellow Catholics, then no one would be godparent. Everyone would refuse. Why would you want all the burden of a parent, without all the benefits (too many to list here) of having a child of your own?
Then there's the question of how close you should be to your godparent. Some prefer family, others won't or can't go with family, and so they choose friends or fellow parishioners instead. (I know a novus ordo woman who chose a sodomite freemason for the godfather of one of her children. The child, now grown, is no longer Catholic.) But those parishioners often move away. They might leave the chapel, the whole group, or even the Catholic Faith. Young men and women are very unstable, and particularly vulnerable to this tendency. It's like navigating a mine field.
Topic: Choosing Godparents (Read 2651 times)