William,

Both God parents absolutely must be Catholics. The role of the God parent is to help the parents instruct and raise the child as a Catholic!! In the event of the parents death, the primary responsibility for the child's spiritual direction falls to the God Parents.

• How can non-Catholics who don't profess the Catholic faith, bring up a child to believe and follow all that the Church teaches?

Moreover, along with the parents, the God parents will have to pronounce faith in the Roman Catholic Church on behalf of the child during the Baptism ceremony.

• How can a non-Catholic claim to accept the Church and all that she teaches as being revealed by God, if he himself is not a member of the Church?

Secondarily, the God parents must be one male and female. A Catholic child has a right to a Godmother and a Godfather. Not just God parents.

Baptism is not just some dedication ceremony which gives the family an excuse to celebrate the baby.

It is a sacrament. Sacrament means covenant bond and it requires the taking of an oath. Your daughter is asking the Church to baptize her child and accept him or her into the Church.

The Church rejoices that your daughter wants her child baptized. Nevertheless, the Church needs assurances that the parents will bring up the child as a Catholic. Therefore She (the Church) can't allow non-Catholics to be God parents. That's not to say, these men aren't loving relatives or outstanding in character but they can't possibly raise the child to believe in what the Church teaches respecting all matters of faith and morals, if they don't know what the Church teaches, let alone, believe in it themselves.

John