Godparent vs. Sponsor

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castlet

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I have a dilemma, and nobody to ask for advice. I am an adult female in my 50’s, raised and baptized protestant. I have decided to learn more about the Catholic faith after a number of events that have led me to do so. I only know one practicing Catholic, a male friend of 30 years, “Bob”. I asked him if I could attend mass with him and that snowballed into RCIA after I made some inquiries. He joined me in RCIA because although he was raised Catholic, he was not confirmed until about 15 years ago and is a bit rusty at some things. He was designated as my sponsor by the RCIA staff and with mutual consent. While he has been kind and supportive for the past few months in RCIA, it has become apparent that he doesn’t know much more than I do about the faith. Every time I ask him a question, he does not know the answer. Sometimes I know an answer he doesn’t know. I should say, I don’t mind this being a learning experience for both of us, but most of my learning has been independent.

Recently I discovered a well liked colleague of mine “Jim” and his wife and children are devout parishioners. He approached me and said he would like to be my Godfather. I was honored. I shared this with Bob and his feelings were hurt. First of all I’m not sure how it all works or even where a Godfather comes in to this whole thing. Or if the sponsor is suppose to be Godparent? My main thinking here is that if I am just coming into the faith, I would like to be mentored by someone who is strong and experienced in the faith. I don’t want to pass up the opportunity to integrate Jim and his family into my journey, but I don’t want to offend Bob either. Plus I am a bit confused on the specific roles of Sponsor vs. Godparent? What to do? It all feels very awkward at this point. Any advice is much welcomed.
 
Sponsor is the term used in canon law. Sponsors for infants are often called godparents. Sponsors of adult converts are not called godparents.

If someone is upset over not being asked to be a sponsor, that is a good sign that he should not be one.

Canon Law on baptismal sponsors:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_P2Y.HTM
 
Godmother/godfather and sponsor have the same role in the Catholic Church. GM/GF is mostly used when it comes to children being baptised/confirmed and sponsor when an adult is baptised/confirmed.

I know a lot more about our Catholic faith than my sponsor but the way I see it is that she is always someone I can call and have a chat with when life gets difficult. She has a wealth of wisdom in other areas as she is in my “grandparent age”. She is the fellow Christian who takes the time to ask how my week was and phones when she hears that I am sick. She is a perfect example of living the faith.
 
Amen to this! I would suggest to the OP , if he wants to spare his friends feelings that he asks the friend to be his “friend for the Journey” as is explained in various RCIA programs. It’ s a person who comes to class with you, prays with you and learns alongside you.
So his name won’t be on the certificate? Big deal. He can still be your spiritual compadre.
 
castlet said:
Or if the sponsor is suppose to be Godparent?
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The sponsor and the “godparent” are the same thing. So you can only have one female and one male sponsor at baptism, or one sponsor if you are only receiving confirmation.

That is why Bob’s feelings got hurt.
castlet said:
My main thinking here is that if I am just coming into the faith, I would like to be mentored by someone who is strong and experienced in the faith. I don’t want to pass up the opportunity to integrate Jim and his family into my journey,
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Jim doesn’t have to be your sponsor in order to integrate into your faith life and be a strong resource and mentor.
 
Usually, the term godparent is only used at Baptism. The concept of godparents traditionally is associated with helping to raise a person in the Faith. Sponsors at Confirmation generally have a different context. They are those who speak for you in the context as one already sealed with the Holy Spirit while petioning the Church for your Sacrament. In my experience some dioceses even require the sponsor to be someone other than a godparent. So, “Bob” can still be your confirmation sponsor and “Jim” can still be your godparent, even if it is unofficial due to you not goin through Baptism.

God Bless,
Br. Ben, CRM
 
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1ke said:
Actually, they can’t do that.
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Why not? We encountered this issue in my own Confirmation class and the confirmand was told that it was diocesan policy that the sponsor be sepatate than the godparent.
 
CRM_Brother said:
Why not? We encountered this issue in my own Confirmation class and the confirmand was told that it was diocesan policy that the sponsor be sepatate than the godparent.
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The diocese can’t have a “policy” the contradicts canon law:

Can. 892 Insofar as possible, there is to be a sponsor for the person to be confirmed; the sponsor is to take care that the confirmed person behaves as a true witness of Christ and faithfully fulfills the obligations inherent in this sacrament.

Can. 893 §1. To perform the function of sponsor, a person must fulfill the conditions mentioned in ⇒ can. 874.

§2. It is desirable to choose as sponsor the one who undertook the same function in baptism.
 
Thanks for the info. We were a missionary diocese with a high percentage of protestant converts. It may have been the specific case that that person was baptised in a protestant church and the official godparents weren’t Catholic. It was poorly explained and this caused a couple other conformands to change their sponsors.
 
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Well that makes more sense if this comment was directed to non-Catholic candidates. It’s unfortunate it bled over into the Catholic confirmands.

And also the “diocesan policy” explanation isn’t just a bad explanation it’s a wrong explanation.

For candidates who were baptized in non-Catholic communities, it isn’t that there is a diocesan “policy” preventing their godparent from being their sponsor, but rather their confirmation sponsor must be a Catholic.

It’s annoying when people make up crazy stuff when the actual explanation is perfectly understandable!
 
In the American Southwest where there are many Hispanos, it’s common to have the Baptismal sponsor return and sponsor the person again for Confirmation. They certainly can be the same person. Just as one can retain your Baptismal Saint name for Confirmation.
 
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