Deacon Mark Campbell and Bo Bonner take on one of the most common questions in baptism preparation: who can be a godparent, and how should parents choose? Deacon Mark explains what canon law actually requires, why "practicing Catholic" doesn't mean "perfect Catholic," and debunks the persistent myth that godparents are legal guardians. The two also offer honest counsel for parents navigating family expectations and for godchildren whose godparents have fallen away from the faith.
Deacon Mark Campbell and Bo Bonner sit down for an extended conversation about godparents — a role nearly every baptized Catholic has, and one that most people, in Bo's words, know mainly from a certain movie about the mob.
Deacon Mark, who prepares couples for their children's baptisms alongside his wife, lays out the basics. The Church requires only one godparent to serve as witness to the baptism, and that person must be a practicing Catholic — someone who can pray for the child, model the faith, and encourage the parents in the promise they make to raise the child in the Church. He and Bo spend real time on what "practicing" means: not perfect, but making an honest attempt to live a Catholic witness. Deacon Mark shares that being asked to serve as a godparent early in his marriage — by a couple he and his wife deeply respected — was itself the doorway into taking his own faith more seriously.
They also address one of the most persistent myths in Catholic family life: there is no legal or canonical arrangement making godparents the guardians of a child if the parents die. What the role actually asks for is presence and prayer, especially at sacramental milestones.
Bo, a convert, describes how the calculus shifts when Catholicism isn't automatic in your family. With few Catholic relatives to draw from, he and his wife chose godparents deliberately — including Des Moines-based Newman scholar Dr. Ryan "Bud" Marr and his wife Rachel — asking not "who would raise our kids" but "who would make sure our kids stay Catholic?" That, the two suggest, may be the best rule of thumb for any parent: if you weren't there, who would you trust to check in along the way?
The conversation closes with a word for godchildren whose godparents have drifted from the faith through divorce, distance, or circumstance: don't discount the relationship, and don't discount your own witness. Deacon Mark encourages inviting them back into the sacramental life of your family, because that bond remains one of the ways the Church, as Bo puts it, blessedly ropes people back in.
Heard on the Catholic Morning Show, weekdays at 7 a.m. Central on Iowa Catholic Radio. More at IowaCatholicRadio.com.
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