Latin: sponsor, surety, godparent
A person of either sex who speaks for the one to be baptized during the ceremony and after Baptism assumes spiritual guardianship over the subject; see also godparents. A sponsor must be baptized, fourteen years of age, and, at the font, must physically hold, touch, or receive the candidate. Parents, heretics, schismatics, and excommunicated are excluded. The sponsor contracts spiritual relationship with the godchild.