SPONSOR/GODPARENT

• A sponsor assists in Christian Initiation, helps the baptized person to lead a Christian life in keeping with baptism and helps to fulfill faithfully the obligations inherent in it.
• There is to be only one male sponsor or one female sponsor or one of each.

In order for one to be a sponsor, he or she must:

1. be designated by the one to be baptized, by the parents or the person who takes their place, or in their absence by the pastor or minister and have the aptitude and intention of fulfilling this function;
2. have completed the sixteenth year of age
3. be a Catholic who has been confirmed and has already received the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist and who leads a life of faith in keeping with the function to be taken on;
4. not be bound by any canonical penalty legitimately imposed or declared;
5. not be the father or mother of the one to be baptized.

A baptized person who belongs to a non-Catholic ecclesial community is not to participate except together with a Catholic sponsor and then only as a witness of the baptism.