Case LV: Godparents in Baptism

Applied correction from Woywod's opening insert: CASE LV, page 245, No. 2.—The New Code, in Canon 766, 4°, forbids members of any religious community to act as sponsors in baptism, even the novices. Father and mother for their children, husband and wife for each other, are forbidden to take the office of Godparent.

A parish priest, whom we will call Father William, had occasion to baptize the child of two strangers, who were spending a few weeks in his parish, during the last summer. Being strangers, they did not know any one whom they might ask to act as sponsors for their child, and therefore brought the child to the church to be baptized, without any godparent. The priest had just finished Mass, and having two altar-boys present, he made them stand for the child. The child was a girl baby. After the ceremony was completed, Father William began to think that perhaps he should have allowed only one of the altar-boys to stand for the baby, and that as there were some nuns in the church at the time, he would have been more within the law, had he called one of the nuns to act as godmother to the child. In looking the matter up afterward, he discovered, what was news to him, that unless the sponsors touched the child physically while it was being baptized, they contracted no relationship to the child, and as he never required godfathers to touch the child, physically, when he baptized, he concluded that he had baptized this child without its having any sponsors, and therefore did not enter the altar-boys' names in the Baptismal records, as sponsors. He now refers the following questions to the HOMILETIC MONTHLY for a solution:

1. May two persons of the same sex stand for a child?

2. May nuns stand for a child?

3. Is it required that sponsors touch the child physically, while it is being baptized, in order to contract spiritual relationship?

4. In the case of converts from the Episcopal church, may two godfathers be allowed to stand for a male child, or two godmothers for a female child, or may the parents themselves ever be permitted to stand for their own child?

5. Finally, in a very special case, may a Catholic stand sponsor for a non-Catholic child, baptized by a non-Catholic minister of the Gospel?

Answer.—The custom of having certain persons act as sponsors or godparents in Baptism, goes back to the earliest ages of the Church. Reference is found made to them by the Fathers and early writers such as St. Augustine, St. Basil, Tertullian, etc. The law at present in the Church regarding godparents dates from the Council of Trent, and it is that law that must guide us in this matter of godparents.

According to the Council of Trent (S. 24) at least one godparent, either male or female, and not more than two, must stand for a child in solemn Baptism, under pain of mortal sin. But it is not allowed to admit two male sponsors or two female sponsors to stand for the same child, neither is it permitted to the parents of the child to act as sponsors for it. The words of the Council of Trent are:

“The Holy Synod decrees that only one person, whether man or woman, according to the statutes of the sacred canons—or at most one man and one woman—shall receive the baptized person from Baptism, and that spiritual relationship shall be contracted only between them and the baptized person and his father and mother, and likewise between the baptizer and the baptized person and the baptized person’s father and mother” (Sess. 24, cap. 2).

And the words of the Roman Ritual are: Only one sponsor, whether man or woman, or at most one man and one woman, is to be employed, according to the decree of the Council of Trent; but two men or two women are not to be admitted together, nor the father or mother of the person to be baptized (de Patrinis, n. 23).

Therefore according to the Council of Trent only one, or at most two, a male and a female should be admitted to act as sponsors, and according to the opinion of St. Alphonsus Liguori, the pastor would be guilty of mortal sin, if he admitted a greater number. When there are two sponsors, they should be of different sexes, not two males, nor two females. St. Alphonsus goes so far as to affirm that (it would be a mortal sin to admit two males or two females, if they be of a different sex from that of the child, that is, two male sponsors for a female child, or two female sponsors for a male child; but the holy doctor holds that to admit two sponsors of the same sex, and of the same sex as the child, would be only a venial sin (Lib. vi., n. 155).

Godparents may not be more than two in number, in order that the spiritual relationship arising from Baptism, may not be multiplied. And it is for this same reason that St. Liguori believes it to be a grievous sin to allow, v. g., two godfathers to stand for a girl, because spiritual relationship is thereby needlessly extended, and diriment impediments to marriage multiplied without cause. In private Baptism, that is, where the ceremonies of the Sacrament are omitted, there is no obligation to have any godparents.

2. The second question proposed to us is this: May nuns act as godmothers?

The Roman Ritual, de Bapt., n. 26., says: Moreover, monks or nuns must not be admitted to this (office of sponsor), nor other regulars of any order separated from the secular world. This is generally interpreted to mean religious orders in which solemn vows are taken. It includes, however, also all religious congregations having simple vows, if their constitutions forbid the acceptance of this office. There are very few, if any, religious congregations, whose constitutions do not forbid their members to act as godparents, and to do so against the rules of the order, would be a sin against the vow of obedience.

3. To the third question we answer, that it is necessary to touch the child physically, while it is being baptized, in order to contract the spiritual relationship. So that in Baptism itself, personally or through a proxy, he PHYSICALLY HOLD or TOUCH the infant while it is being baptized, or immediately lift it up or receive it from the sacred font, or from the hands of the baptizer (St. Lig. Lib. vi., n. 146). It is not necessary that the godparent touch the child's body immediately, that is, the child's flesh, but it suffices if the godparent touch the child's clothes. Mere witnessing the Baptism, or mere assistance at it, even though one have the intention of acting as godparent, is not sufficient to contract spiritual relationship. As Baptism is a new birth, the godparents must not merely witness it, but they must take part in it. In case of a subsequent marriage between the godparent and godchild, if there were doubt as to whether the godparent physically touched the child in Baptism, a dispensation would be necessary super impedimenta cognationis spiritual™, ad cautelam.

4. In the Book of Common Prayer of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, there is this article: "There shall be for every male child to be baptized, when they can be had, two godfathers and one godmother; and for every female, one godfather and two godmothers; and parents shall be admitted as sponsors, when it is desired."

If more than two godparents, namely, one man and one woman, be designated by the parents of the child to stand for the child, whether they be Catholics or non-Catholics, they must be prevented by the priest, from standing. If they are Catholics, this will be very simple as a rule. If they be non-Catholics, it may be practically impossible to prevent them from acting as sponsors, without serious inconvenience. In this case they may be allowed to witness the ceremony, without having them touch the child physically, when it is being baptized. If you can not, without giving offense, keep them from touching the child or holding it, while it is being baptized, you may allow them even this privilege; but in no case are they to be considered the sponsors of the child. The law forbidding more than one male and one female sponsor, and the law forbidding non- Catholics to act as sponsors, are church-laws and do not oblige cum gravi incommode.

This is the general opinion of modern theologians. But if a heretic already designated by the parents could not be removed without great offense, he could be admitted as a witness without being instructed to touch the infant during the act of washing. Indeed, if he cannot be prevented without grave harm from touching the infant, the heretic could be admitted in order to avoid so great a harm, since the thing is not intrinsically evil (Noldin, III., n. 79. Lehmkuhl, Casus Consc. II., n. 84).

5. It is never allowed that a Catholic stand for a non-Catholic child, in a non-Catholic Baptism. The Holy Office has expressly forbidden it:

It is absolutely unlawful, either personally or through others, to perform the office of sponsor in baptisms administered by heretics to the children of heretics (S. Officium, May 10th, 1770).

Some theologians, with St. Alphonsus, thought that a Catholic might act as sponsor in a non-Catholic Baptism, when such action on the part of the Catholic could in no manner be looked upon as an approval of a non-Catholic rite. They thought that there was always present some hope of bringing the child up in the faith, and that this was a sufficient justification for taking part in a non- Catholic ceremony. But, apart from the prohibition of participating in non-Catholic rites, it is never allowed to ask what another can not grant without sin; but the godparent asks of the non-Catholic minister, what the minister can not confer without sin, namely, Baptism (Lehmkuhl, II., 71).