MERGED: Can one be the confirmation sponsor of one's godchild?

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In Catholic Education Resource Center in the article The Role of Godparents by Father William Saunders declared: “Ideally, this sponsor at baptism” (godfather) “should also be the sponsor for confirmation.” Was there not a Catholic rule declaring that a Catholic godfather could not be a Confirmation sponsor for his own godson?
 
Yikes! This suddenly occurred to me… my daughter who will be confirmed soon has asked someone who is close to us to be her confirmation sponsor but this person is already her Godparent.

Is this all right?

Thanks 🙂
 
Yes! Not only is it acceptable, it is encouraged for a Baptismal godparent to be a Confirmation sponsor, simply to show that the two sacraments are linked. My siblings and I have generally had our godparents as our Confirmation sponsors.
 
His_helpmeet said:
Yes! Not only is it acceptable, it is encouraged for a Baptismal godparent to be a Confirmation sponsor, simply to show that the two sacraments are linked. My siblings and I have generally had our godparents as our Confirmation sponsors.
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This is true. Actually, it is preferable that Confirmation candidates use BOTH baptismal godparents, if possible. The main reasons why Confirmation candidates are allowed to choose other people as sponsors are as follows: it is possible that between baptism and Confirmation that the baptismal godparents die, become chronically ill, or end up otherwise unable to attend the Confirmation (such as distance, incarceration, etc.) or the baptismal godparents may no longer be living in accord with the Catholic Church (e.g., divorce and remarriage outside of the Church, etc.).

Besides, in RCIA, Baptism and Confirmation are both done during the Easter Vigil. The catecumens only select one person to be the sponsor for BOTH Baptism and Confirmation.
 
When my niece was being confirmed her instructions explicitly stated that she was NOT to ask a Godparent to be her sponsor. How interesting is that…
 
CyrilSebastian said:
Was there not a Catholic rule declaring that a Catholic godfather could not be a Confirmation sponsor for his own godson?
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No.

Perhaps you are thinking of marriage. In the older codes of canon law, the impediment of spiritual reationship precluded marriage between a sponsor and those they sponsor. This impediment was abrogated in the 1983 code of canon law in the Latin Church.

However, spiritual relationship remains an impediment to marriage in the Eastern Catholic Code, but I believe it can be dispensed. 811.1 states: “From baptism there arises a spiritual relationship between a godparent and the baptized person and the parents of the same that invalidates marriage.”
 
IrishRush said:
When my niece was being confirmed her instructions explicitly stated that she was NOT to ask a Godparent to be her sponsor. How interesting is that…
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Flies in the face of Canon Law, which says:
Can. 893 §1. To perform the function of sponsor, a person must fulfill the conditions mentioned in ⇒ can. 874 (which is the canon on baptismal sponsors)
§2. It is desirable to choose as sponsor the one who undertook the same function in baptism.
 
IrishRush said:
When my niece was being confirmed her instructions explicitly stated that she was NOT to ask a Godparent to be her sponsor. How interesting is that…
Click to expand...
questions:
  1. was this a general statement to everyone or just to her?
  2. who told your niece? Priest, Religious Ed Director, parent?
  3. were/are the Godparents in good standing with the Church?
 
St_Francis said:
Yikes! This suddenly occurred to me… my daughter who will be confirmed soon has asked someone who is close to us to be her confirmation sponsor but this person is already her Godparent.

Is this all right?

Thanks 🙂
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Absolutely acceptable and encouraged.👍
 
Shew! Thanks everyone, this is good to know 🙂 Looks like we are good to go, then!
 
phil19034 said:
questions:
  1. was this a general statement to everyone or just to her?
  2. who told your niece? Priest, Religious Ed Director, parent?
  3. were/are the Godparents in good standing with the Church?
Click to expand...
This was actually part of the information packet sent home to the parents.
I believe it came from the RE director, but not 100% sure.
No, in fact the Godmother is not even Catholic (neither was my niece’s mother at the time of the child’s birth). I’m not sure who the child’s Godfather is, he was chosen by her dad. The parents are no longer married.
 
How can the Godparent not be a catholic? I’ve
heard of this before snd it’s scary. Now my daughter
has asked me to be godmother at my granddaughters
baptism because her friends are non practicing
Catholics and she wants obviously a catholic Godparent
in good standing. Can a grandmother be a godparent?
 
marywarfield said:
How can the Godparent not be a catholic? I’ve
heard of this before snd it’s scary. Now my daughter
has asked me to be godmother at my granddaughters
baptism because her friends are non practicing
Catholics and she wants obviously a catholic Godparent
in good standing. Can a grandmother be a godparent?
Click to expand...
Yes, a grandparent can be a sponsor.

Perhaps the previously mentioned child was not baptized in the Catholic Church? Or perhaps the ‘godmother’ is in fact a Christian Witness and that was never explained to the parents – I know the difference was never explained to us at the time of our youngest’s Baptism; I only learned the difference about 15 years later.
 
IrishRush said:
No, in fact the Godmother is not even Catholic
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It is not possible to have a non-Catholic sponsor.

This woman, presuming she was baptized, was what the Church calls a Christian witness to the baptism.

In such a case, the man they chose as the godfather would have been the only sponsor. If he is not Catholic then in fact the child had no sponsor.
 
My godmother was also my confirmation sponsor was I was confirmed as a teenager. At the time, she was one of few adults in my family that was actively involved in her faith and old enough to serve the role. A few others in my class also had a godparent as a sponsor too.

I served as one of the sponsors and godparents for my sister’s kids when they were received into the church at Easter Vigil nearly 5 years ago.
 
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