PADRINI (NEL BATTESIMO E NELLA CRESIMA)

**SPONSORS** (in Baptism and Confirmation). — A sponsor (patrinus, quasi parvus pater, or sponsor or receptor) is one who must assist the baptismal candidate or confirmand during the relevant ceremonies and make for them the solemn promises which the Church requires.

I. HISTORY AND GENERAL NOTIONS

The use of sponsors dates back to the early centuries of Christianity (Tertullian, *De Baptismo*, ch. 18) and was established in ecclesiastical legislation (c. 77, D. IV de cons.), later passing into the *Codex Iuris Canonici*. A sponsor may be dispensed with only for grave causes and urgent necessity, except in the case of a conditional renewal of Baptism, in which the sponsor is not necessary unless the same person who acted as sponsor in the previous ceremony undertakes this office again (can. 763).

The sponsor must be a single person; however, for Baptism two persons may be admitted: one sponsor and one godmother. For Confirmation, the sponsor must be of the same sex as the confirmand, except in cases of necessity (can. 796), whereas in Baptism a difference of sex is permitted (can. 764). The person called to the office of sponsor must be present at the ceremony, at least by proxy, and, at the moment of the administration of the sacrament, is bound, for its validity, to touch the confirmand physically, and in Baptism to support, touch the baptismal candidate or lift them from the sacred font or receive them from the hands of the baptizer (can. 765, §5).

The office of sponsor may be validly exercised only by a baptized person, and in Confirmation by a confirmed person who: a) is chosen by the baptismal candidate or confirmand, or by their parents or guardians; in their absence by the minister of the sacrament or the parish priest; b) has attained the use of reason and is animated by the intention of actually fulfilling this office; c) is not enrolled in heretical or schismatic sects, nor excommunicated by sentence, nor struck by infamy of law, or excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical acts, nor a degraded or deposed cleric; d) is not the father, mother, or spouse of the baptismal candidate or confirmand (can. 765).

For lawful exercise, the following are required: a) the age of 13 years completed; b) freedom from excommunication for a notorious crime, from the penalty of exclusion from legitimate ecclesiastical acts, from infamy of law (without sentence), from interdict, and from infamy of fact.

The office of sponsor cannot be exercised by a public delinquent or by one who is ignorant of the first elements of the Catholic faith. Clerics in sacred orders require the express permission of their Ordinary, and religious or novices must obtain the express license of the local superior, who will grant it only in cases of true necessity (can. 766).

If Confirmation is not conferred immediately after Baptism, the sponsor for Confirmation must be distinct from the Baptismal sponsor, unless a reasonable motive suggests derogating from the norm (can. 796, §1).

**II. EFFECTS OF THE OFFICE OF SPONSOR AND OBLIGATIONS.** — From Baptism and Confirmation there arises a spiritual kinship, which, after the Council of Trent (sess. XXIV, ch. 2 de ref.), extended to the baptizer, the baptized, the sponsors, and the parents of the baptized; to the confirmer, the confirmed, the sponsors, and the parents of the confirmed. Today the spiritual bond arises only between the baptized and the baptizer; between the baptized and their sponsors; between the confirmand and the confirmer; and between the confirmed and the sponsor. From this spiritual kinship arises an impediment that dissolves marriage (v. COGNATIONE); no spiritual bond, however, arises in the case of a repeated conditional Baptism, when the sponsor of the second Baptism was distinct from that of the first. Sponsors must consider the spiritual child as entrusted to their care; therefore they will take care of their Christian education, especially when they are orphaned or neglected by their parents (can. 769).

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