What is the role of a godparent/sponsor?
It is not merely a position of honor to be a godparent. The godparent has the awesome task of nurturing the new Catholic in conjunction with the child’s parent and providing him/her with all the tools necessary to become a saint. They are called to show the child a good example of the Christian life, sustain him/her in moments of hesitancy, uncertainty, and anxiety, bear witness, and guide the child’s progress helping him/her to lead a Christian life in keeping with baptism and to fulfill faithfully the obligations inherent in that life. While the godparent is to support the parents efforts in raising the child in the faith and call them to task if they hinder the child’s growth in the Faith, they are NOT simply backups to the parents. A godparent, (as well as the one baptizing) contract a lifelong spiritual relationship with the child baptized, not with his parents, and are obligated to fulfill that role regardless of the abundance or paucity of parental instruction. In the Baptism Ri
