Once again, against a nighttime backdrop of the Easter Vigil Mass, individuals and families will step into the brilliant light of full communion with the Church on Holy Saturday.
Amid the beaming converts, their proud families and the welcoming faces of their new co-congregants stands a select group of individuals who as much as anyone helped make this moment possible.
They are Rite of Christian Initiation sponsors, the integral link between words on a page and faith in action in everyday life. Regardless of how many times they participate in these journeys, each fundamentally transforms their own relationship with God and their faith community.
“I absolutely love doing this. I will do this as long as God allows me to,” said Barbara Snow, a member of Immaculate Conception Church in North Little Rock and an RCIA sponsor for the past 12 years. “It’s just the most rewarding, awesome thing ever.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops describes the role of sponsors as individuals, “called to show the candidates good example of the Christian life, sustain the candidates in moments of hesitancy and anxiety, bear witness and guide the candidate’s progress in the baptismal life.”
Program directors say being held up as such an example is exactly what causes many people to shy away from becoming a sponsor. While the role is not one to be taken lightly, they say people don’t have to be “super Catholics” to be an effective and prayerful part of the process.
“Some of the people I have asked in the past have told me, ‘Oh, I can’t do that. They might ask me a question I don’t know,’” said Andrea Papini, RCIA director at St. Joseph Church in Conway. “That’s not the sponsor’s primary role anyway, to try and answer everything. Their main purpose is to be a witness to the faith.”
“I encourage my sponsors to be honest and if they don’t know, to say so. In fact, I tell people that myself if they ask me something I don’t know,” said Peggy Brandebura, RCIA director at Immaculate Conception Church in Fort Smith. “It’s not about having the answers, but to be there to listen to questions that a candidate might be too shy to ask someone else or in a group. That’s what they are there for.”
In fact, many directors see a red flag when a potential sponsor comes off as having all the answers or as superior to others in knowledge and practice of the faith. In the ideal candidate-sponsor relationship, empathy trumps expertise.
“One of the things I look for in a sponsor is the ability to be a good listener as opposed to someone who likes the sound of their own voice,” said Scott Rennals, RCIA director at Blessed Sacrament Church in Jonesboro. “I also stress confidentiality. Whatever the candidate wants to talk about, keep it in confidence and if there’s something that’s a concern, only share it with the priest or myself.”
The most prized trait of all for a sponsor is someone who is comfortable in their own sometimes-warty Catholic skin and can relate to the struggles, searching and doubts of others by acknowledging their own. For this reason, directors say, converts are often excellent in the role.
“Converts make very good sponsors,” Rennels said. “It’s still very fresh in their memory how they fell in love with the Church and they can relate very well to those who are getting started.”
In North Little Rock, Snow estimates between 50 and 75 percent of sponsors are converts in any given year. Converts also bring their unique brand of “been there, done that” to Fort Smith, Brandebura said.
“RCIA alums know exactly the value of candidates having someone to talk to,” she said. “They understand how confusing the process can be, how to take people as they are and how to hold their hand all the way through to where they want to be.”
Debbie Davidson is one such person, although even by her own admission she has jumped into her parish community with more fervor than most, convert or not. She joined the Church at Easter 2012 and less than a year later she teaches children’s education and is a small group leader and sponsor through this year’s RCIA program at Blessed Sacrament Church.
“My journey is to help others become aware of the Catholic faith, learn the truth about the Church and come to know the kind of blessings and grace that it has given me,” she said. “I have been so richly blessed because I was called to do these things. I hope that I have made a positive impact on the people around me.”
For all of the value that empathy and relationship-building have for a person going through the RCIA process, directors are also quick to point out that there is real work to do, work that sometimes covers painful ground. For that reason, directors and pastors alike increasingly discourage selecting candidates’ spouses, family members or friends as sponsors.
“I discourage it and Father (Jack Vu) discourages it even more strongly,” Rennels said. “When you have someone close to you, like a family member, you are more likely to sidestep something you really should confront. The family member, as well, is far more likely to say ‘It’s OK, don’t worry about it.’”
That’s not to say that sponsors who start out as strangers stay that way for long. Past and present sponsors are unanimous in saying the relationships forged during the RCIA process run deep. Sponsors routinely continue their role as mentor to the new Catholic and often are asked to take part in other life events of the convert, such as baptisms and weddings. Far from discouraging this, sponsors say these relationships are another strengthening agent in the parish community.
“Last Christmas, Father Tom (Elliott) asked the question, ‘What star do we follow today that leads us to our faith?’” Snow said. “I told him I look around the church and I see all these people that I have worked with through RCIA and to me, they just gleam. They’re my Bethlehem Star.”