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Whom to choose as our witness?

KittyKaty20KittyKaty20 member
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edited April 2014 in Catholic Weddings

I am Catholic, FI is not. His brother will be signing the marriage license as Best Man, and I have twin best friends who are my Matrons of Honor. I am struggling to select the twin who will sign the paperwork. We have been best friends for almost 30 years and I just cannot decide!

They are both Catholic; Twin A is married to a non-Catholic and Twin B is married to a Catholic. Twin A lives within 20 miles of me, so I see her a lot; Twin B is about a 2-hour drive away. Twin A's children are our flower girl and ring bearer; Twin B is expecting in August (yay!) I'm wondering if I should ask one to sign as our witness, and ask the other to be our first-born child's Godparent?

Any ideas/guidance?

Edited: paragraphs are wonky today.

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Re: Whom to choose as our witness?

  • HisGirlFriday13HisGirlFriday13 member
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    I'm not really sure. In PA, where DH and I got married, no one other than the priest signs the marriage licence.

    I would choose whichever one you're closest to to sign it.

    But I would not choose a Catholic married to a non-Catholic to be my child's godparents. I think religion trumps all in this, and I would want two Catholics to be a child's godparents.

    I wouldn't equate signing the licence with being a godparent; the latter is SO MUCH bigger of a deal.
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    I'm gonna go with 'not my circus, not my monkeys.'
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  • agapecarrieagapecarrie member
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    You don't have to choose an actual "couple" to be God parents. You can still choose the Catholic girl, and choose another Catholic guy that isn't her husband. 
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  • KittyKaty20KittyKaty20 member
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    Good advice, both of you-thank you!
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  • Calypso1977Calypso1977 member
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    choosing a couple sounds nice, but the issue i have is with the prevalence of divorce today you run the risk of the couple not being together forever.  some may continue to keep the committment to a godchild, some may not.

    i think its safer to pick two unrelated catholics. 

    as for the marriage license (more accurately, its probably the official church record you are speaking of?) the church will most likely want two catholics in good standing to sign.  so id probably just tell the priest that both twins will sign unless they require a male and a female at which case you will just have to pick one and then maybe have a male relative who is catholic sign.

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  • KittyKaty20KittyKaty20 member
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    @Calypso1977-

    The marriage license is for the Sate of California.

    Unrelated Catholics is a great idea-my godparents divorced and we lost touch with them over the years. Thanks!

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  • Calypso1977Calypso1977 member
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    oh, then whoever signs the license just has to be of legal age.  their religion does not matter at all.

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  • ceruseceruse member
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    I was in a similar situation because I have two of my best friends as bridesmaids and decided not to choose one over the other to be the Maid of Honor. I also didn't want to pick one over the other to do something really significant, like signing our marriage license.

    FI and I decided to pick totally new people as our witnesses, as a way of including more people we loved in our special day. I picked my aunt and FI picked his cousin. Both of them were honored to be asked to play a special role, and I didn't have to choose between my two girls.
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