Are godparents required for baptism?

[lindab928]

Is it true that with a baptism of a child (or adult) that a sponsor and/or godparent is not needed? I know the idea of if one is Catholic and one isn’t, one is considered the witness; and if you’ve only got a godmother you don’t necessarily need a godfather. But, I’ve got a family arguing with me that they do not need to provide godparents for the baby at baptism because “canon law states it’s not necessary.” Can you make this clearer for me?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Canon law states:

Insofar as possible, a person being baptized is to be assigned a sponsor. In the case of an adult baptism, the sponsor’s role is to assist the person in Christian initiation. In the case of an infant baptism, the role is together with the parents to present the child for baptism, and to help it to live a Christian life befitting the baptized and faithfully to fulfill the duties inherent in baptism (canon 872, Code of Canon Law).

In other words, the parents have the duty to do their best to find a godparent for the child to be baptized. If that is impossible, then having a godparent is not absolutely required, but they should be expected to demonstrate that they gave reasonable effort to find a qualified Catholic. For that matter, you could offer to be the godparent if they are unable to find anyone else.