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According to Church law, godparents and sponsors must be people who lead and live a Christian life, they must be practicing Catholics. A godparent or sponsor must have received the sacraments of Christian initiation themselves (baptism, confirmation and communion). The whole point of being a godparent or sponsor is to assist a person to be faithful to their baptismal promises, so non-practicing Catholics are already failing at this, and are disqualified. Baptized non-Catholics can only act as Christian witnesses; Protestants and non-Catholics cannot really be godparents or sponsors. A godparent or sponsor must be 16 years of age or older.

There should be only one male and only one female sponsor or godparent. Parents cannot be the godparents or sponsors of their own children. Parents, sponsors and pastors should not permit non-Christian names to be given in baptism and/or confirmation.