The local priest of a schoolboy believed to have fathered a child at just 13 said that it would be wrong to "point the finger at anyone".
Father Seamus Hester said that Alfie Patten and his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman, 15, needed all the support they could get after becoming parents to baby Maisie six days' ago.
The case of Alfie - who was just 12 when the child was conceived - has already provoked a fierce political debate over the high rate of teenage pregnancies in the UK and the sexualisation of children.
But Father Seamus, who presides over St Gregory's Roman Catholic Church, close to Chantelle's home in Eastbourne, East Sussex, said that he commended the family for going through with the pregnancy.
He said: "My immediate reaction is that we mustn't point the finger at anyone. They didn't go off to have an abortion to do away with the child, so obviously they have got respect for human life. Whatever their ages, I say well done for bringing the child into the world."
Father Seamus, who does not know either family himself, added that he hoped they would receive support from those around them.
"I expect social services will help and I would hope that they have got family and friends to help both of them. That is the most important thing in this situation."
Two other teenagers have told the News of the World that they could have fathered the child.
Both Richard Goodsell, 16, and Tyler Barker, 14, said they had slept with Chantelle at around the time she would have become pregnant, and claimed that she also had several other sexual partners.
Richard, who alleged to the paper he stayed in Chantelle's bed with the consent of her parents Penny and Steve, and without using any contraception, said he plans to demand a DNA test is carried out.
