Minimum age for Godparents

[Sduddy]

Does anyone know if there was a minimum age for sponsors (Godparents) at Baptisms?

A girl, whose age is given as 11 in the 1901 census, was sponsor at a baptism the previous year. I am trying to find out if she was, in fact, a little older than her “census age”.

Sheila

[smcarberry]

I can't believe no reply has been posted yet, as this question has come up on other gen. message boards, where the response invariably is that in the Catholic Church a baptismal sponsor's primary responsibility has been to be ready to ensure that the godchild's upbringing remains in the Catholic tradition if the parents are no longer available for that purpose. Thus the godparent needs to be of an age to make such a commitment, which is at least the age of 18.

However, there must be someone who has access to an Irish theologian or someone who can provide an authoritative answer in terms of Ireland in the 19th century/early 20th.

Sharon Carberry
USA

[pwaldron]

I have always understood that any Catholic who had been confirmed was considered old enough to be a godparent. My greatgrandmother died in 1887 when my grandmother and her sister were three years old and eight months old respectively. The only baptismal sponsor for the two girls was their mother's youngest sister, who was 14 and 16 respectively when her goddaughters were born. She later raised them, with the help of her brother, with whom she ran a drapery business. When my grandmother was 15, she was a witness at the marriage of her aunt/godmother/guardian, then aged 29.

[Sduddy]

Yes, Paddy is probably right in saying that the sponsor just needed to have been confirmed. The fifties is as far back as I can remember, and I do remember that the Bishop came to the parish once every three years and then confirmed all of the top three classes. This meant that children as young as ten were confirmed. If things were much the same fifty years earlier, then it is quite possible that a sponsor at a Baptism was aged only ten.

Sheila

[smcarberry]

Whether or not this fits the precise situation first discussed in this thread, here is current authority on the subject, which was posted on another message board and which I read a while ago but forgot:

Canon Law # 874 1. "to be admitted to undertake the office of sponsor (for the Sacrament of Baptism), a person must:
...
1.2 be not less than 16 years of age, unless a different age has been stipulated by the Diocesan Bishop, or unless the parish priest or the minister considers that there is a just reason for an exception to be made..."

[mgallery]

I was godmother for my brother as was my sister when I was in my teens. It is definitely not 18. I thought it was simply you had to be confirmed. I think the 16 rule will turn out to be a recent thing

[jkane13]

I was 16 when my brother asked me to be his daughters godfather. It was too young! I felt obligated to say yes, but also knew I wouldn't fulfil the responsibilities. To this day my brother hasn't forgiven me for not "acting like" her godfather. We get along fine, but when her name comes up, he gives me a dirty look and makes remarks about when I did not get her a special birthday present or such.

[Declan Barron]

I was godfather to my sister at 12

[Jim McNamara]

I believe the rule was not to be able to financial support the child, but to be able to overlook the child's religious upbringing, to make sure the child was raised as a properly, practicing Catholic. I will ask a priest or two I know. I suspect that like anything, some priest are more flexible than the rules allow. I've recently met a Canon lawyer but may be hard to track down.

There are similar issues about who is allowed to be married in the Church and when is someone allowed to have their marriage annulled.