Confirmation Sponsor Guidelines

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Confirmation Sponsors

A sponsor is a person chosen by the candidate as a mentor in the process of full initiation into the Catholic Church.  The sponsor’s role is to walk the journey of faith as a companion to the youth being fully initiated.  This person should be have established good rapport with and be easy to talk to for the young person.

Requirements for a sponsor:

  1. Be chosen by the candidate;
  2. Be 17 years of age or older;
  3. Be a fully initiated (all three sacraments of initiation) practicing Catholic in good canonical standing who participates in Sunday liturgy, leads a life in harmony with the faith and the role to be undertaken and is willing and able to participate in the Eucharist with his/her candidate;
  4. Not be the father nor mother of the one to be confirmed;
  5. Ideally be the baptismal sponsor so that the link between Baptism and Confirmation is expressed clearly;
  6. Be close enough in age and geography as to be able to maintain appropriate contact with the candidate before and after Confirmation.

Role of the sponsor:

  1. Model how a person of faith lives in today’s world;
  2. A friend who knows the candidate, and can witness to the maturing faith of the candidate before the community;
  3. Guide, confidante, and listener;
  4. A learner who is interested in his/her faith development as he/she walks in the faith journey of the candidate;
  5. A mentor who will continue after Confirmation to walk the faith journey with the candidate and invite the candidate into fuller participation in parish life and service.

Sponsors are expected to:

  1. Attend a sponsor orientation meeting;
  2. Attend specific gatherings with your candidate (retreat, Mass, day of reflection, rites, rehearsals);
  3. Participate in all formal liturgical rites and rehearsals in the Confirmation process, including, of course, the Confirmation mass itself;
  4. Meet / talk regularly with the candidate outside of sessions, to encourage and to assist him/her to grow in knowledge, in prayer, in service, in worship, and in participation in the parish community.

If you have been asked to be a sponsor of a young person, it means that you hold a special place in their faith lives.  Please consider this carefully.

GO, and make disciples of all nations! (Matthew 28:19)

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