RCIA

RCIA > What is the role of the sponsor?

What is the role of the sponsor?

During the RCIA process you will be assigned a sponsor who will walk with you through the coming year.  Your sponsor will attend all RCIA meetings, retreats, events, and rites with you, sharing in the experience.   Ultimately, your sponsor will be your witness, should you decide to pursue the Sacraments of Initiation.

Often we find that our RCIA sponsor becomes a friend with whom we can pray, read Scripture, and attend mass.  They will help to introduce us into the social and liturgical aspects of parish life, the organizations to which they belong, their friends and family.  Through them we become to be a part of the parish we are investigating.  We can look to them to share their experience as Catholics, the challenges they face and the fruits they have reaped from their faith.  We encourage you to share your own challenges and rewards with your sponsor as you progress on your Christian walk.  Your sponsor knows well the sensitivity of your confidences at this point, and will keep confidential things in confidence. 

The Church requires that all sponsors be confirmed Catholics in good standing with the Church, who are over the age of 16.  We also ask that sponsors be the same gender as Candidates and Catechumen.   We encourage spouses or fiancés of inquirers to attend classes and retreats and often we are asked if a spouse can be a sponsor.   Because much of a sponsors role it to introduce the candidate to new people and experiences, we suggest that if the spouse would like to be a sponsor, we seek to match them with a candidate of the same gender.