A child being baptized is required to have one sponsor. At a time when life expectancy was not what it is today, parents worried about who would raise their children if something happened to them. Many parents wanted to make sure that their children were raised with Catholic values. So the role of “godparents” began to include the promise to raise the children if the parents should be unable to do so. That is when many parents began to invite a couple to serve. Today it is the norm for a child to have a godfather and a godmother. It is still perfectly acceptable to have only one sponsor. For Confirmation, the custom of one sponsor has continued. There may be two sponsors for Confirmation if the candidate wants both of his godparents to stand for him for the sacrament.
The requirement to have one sponsor for Baptism opens up the possibility of a “Christian witness.” As long as the child being baptized has one official sponsor, the family can have a non-Catholic who is not an actual sponsor but who has a similar role. This would be someone baptized in another Christian denomination who can support the child by a witness of Christian life. The question sometimes comes up about those who are Catholic but are not living their Catholic faith. Such a person cannot be a Christian witness. Catholics are bound to live by the Catholic faith, and so they cannot be considered as a non-Catholic Christian witness. But someone who is living the teachings of his or her faith and has been baptized into a Christian community can be a Christian witness. As with families who have two Catholic sponsors, the Christian witness must be the opposite sex of the official godparent. We cannot have two godmothers or two godfathers.
There are times when something prevents a sponsor from being present. I have had situations of sponsors serving in the military or being ill or for some other reason not being able to be present. In that case, the sponsor can still serve as sponsor, but he or she has to have someone physically present at the baptism. In that case, the parents designate a “proxy” to stand for the sponsor. The important note is that the proxy must meet the same qualifications at the Catholic sponsor. Someone who does not qualify as a sponsor cannot serve as a proxy.
Questions about sponsors come up frequently in my experience. I hope that these columns last week and this can help to clear up some understanding of what sponsors are all about.
Father H
