18 Christian Initiation in order to show their common faith and to express their shared joy with which the newly baptized are received into the Church. 8. In accordance with a most ancient custom of the Church, an adult is not admitted to Baptism without a godparent: a member of the Christian community who will already have assisted the candidate at least in the final preparation for receiving the Sacrament and who will help the candidate after Baptism to persevere in the faith and in the Christian life. Likewise, at the Baptism of a child a godparent should be present in order to represent both the wider spiritual family of the one to be baptized and the role of the Church as mother and, as circumstances suggest, to help the parents so that the infant will come to profess the faith and to express it in life. 9. At least in the later rites of the catechumenate and in the celebration of Baptism itself, the role of the godparent is to testify to the faith of the adult candidate or, together with the parents, to profess the Church’s faith, in which the infant is baptized. 10. Therefore the godparent, chosen by the catechumen or the family, must, in the judgment of the pastor of souls, be qualified to carry out the proper liturgical functions mentioned in no. 9, that is: 1) be designated by the one to be baptized or by the parents or by whoever takes their place or, in their absence, by the pastor or the minister of Baptism and have the aptitude and the intention to carry out this responsibility; 2) be mature enough to fulfill this responsibility; a person sixteen years old is presumed to have the requisite maturity, unless a different age has been established by the Diocesan Bishop or it seems to the pastor or minister that an exception is to be made for a just cause; 3) be initiated with the three Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist, and be living a life consistent with faith and the responsibility of a godparent; 4) be neither the father nor the mother of the one to be baptized; 5) be one godparent, male or female; but there may be two, one of each sex;
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