Chapter IV. The Sponsors

SPONSORS, according to ecclesiastical law, are used in solemn Baptism to answer for the child baptized, to hold him during Baptism, or to receive him immediately after Baptism from the hands of the minister, and to act as his instructors in the Faith which he received and professed in Baptism.

With regard to those who have Catholic parents, the sponsors may ordinarily presume that the Catholic education of the child will be sufficiently provided for by them; but otherwise the sponsors will be bound, as far as possible, to provide for it.

Sponsors should be employed in private Baptism if at least one can easily be had; if this was not done, they should be employed afterwards when the ceremonies are supplied in the Church (Can. 762, sec. 2).

The Council of Trent ordained, “that in accordance with the appointments of the sacred canons, one person only, whether male or female, or at most one male and one female, shall receive in Baptism the individual baptized; between whom and the baptized, and the father and mother thereof, as also between the person baptizing and the baptized, and the father and mother of the baptized, and these only, shall spiritual relationship be contracted. The parish priest, before he proceeds to confer Baptism, shall carefully inquire of those whom it may concern what person or persons they have chosen to receive from the sacred font the individual baptized; and he shall allow him or them only to receive the baptized; he shall register their names in the book, and teach them what relationship they have contracted, that they may have no excuse on the score of ignorance. And if any others besides those designated should touch the baptized, they shall not in any way contract a spiritual relationship, any constitutions that tend to the contrary notwithstanding.¹

Spiritual relationship between the sponsors and the parents of the baptized person and between the minister of Baptism and the parents was abolished by Canon 768.

In order to be sponsor validly a person must be: (1) Baptized, have the use of reason, and have the intention of being sponsor. (2) He must not belong to any heretical or schismatical body, nor be excommunicated by a condemnatory or declaratory sentence, nor infamous with the infamy of law, nor excluded from acts of law, nor a deposed or degraded cleric.

(3) He must not be the father, mother, or spouse of the person baptized. (4) He must be designated by the person to be baptized, or by his parents or guardians, or failing these by the minister of Baptism.

(5) He must physically hold or touch the baptized person in the act of Baptism, by himself or by his proctor, or immediately raise or receive him from the sacred font or from the hands of the person baptizing (Can. 765).

¹ Sess. xxiv, c, 2, de Ref.

To be admitted as sponsor lawfully a person— (1) Must have reached the fourteenth year of his age, unless the minister judge otherwise for a good reason.

(2) He must not be excommunicated for a notorious crime, or excluded from acts of law, or infamous with the infamy of law, but without sentence having been passed, or under interae or otherwise publicly criminal, or infamous by infamy of fact.

(3) He must know the rudiments of the Faith.

(4) He must not be a novice or professed in any religious institute, unless there is necessity and the express leave be had of at least the local superior.

(5) He must not be in sacred orders unless he have the express leave of his own Ordinary (Can. 766).

Others are sometimes prohibited by provincial law, as the following in England: those who have not been confirmed or who have not made their Easter duties, and ecclesiastics.

One may be sponsor by proxy, and then the principal, not the proxy, contracts spiritual relationship with the person baptized.

Sponsors are not necessary when Baptism is reiterated conditionally, unless the same person can be had in the second Baptism as acted as sponsor in the first (Can. 763).