Godparents?

Christianity Traditionally, the godparents were counted informally responsible for ensuring that the child's religious education was carried out and for caring for the child should he/she be orphaned. Today the word "godparent" may not have explicitly religious overtones. The modern view of a godparent tends to be an individual chosen by the parents to take an interest in the child's upbringing and personal development. However, godparent is not a legal position, and should the parents seriously intend the godparents to act as foster parents in case of their death, this must be legally specified through the usual means (such as a will). [edit]Origins By the second century A. D. baptism had become accepted as a ceremony largely for the spiritual purification and social initiation of infants.[1] The requirement for some confession of faith necessitated the use of adults who acted as sponsors for the child. They vocalised the confession of faith and act as guarantors of the childs spiritual upbringing. Normally these sponsors were the natural parents of a child, as underlined in 408 by St. Augustine who suggested that they could, it seems exceptionally, be other individuals.[2] Within a century the Corpus Juris Civilis indicates that parents had been replaced in this role almost completely.[3] This was clarified in 813 when the Council of Munich prohibited natural parents from acting as godparents to their own children.[4]