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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

Is my 13-month-old son required to attend Sunday Mass?

Question:

Sometimes my wife and I drop our 13-month-old son off at my mom’s house while we go to Mass. It just occurred to me that since my son is baptized, he has an obligation to attend Sunday Mass. What is my obligation to see that he attends Mass?

Answer:

Children under the age of reason are not obliged to attend Sunday Mass. However, they should be familiar with attending Mass by the time they are seven years of age (the accepted age of reason). They ought to be attending Sunday Mass regularly by the time they start school.

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