Chương 3. Những Người Lãnh Nhận Bí Tích Rửa Tội (Điều 864-871)

Every unbaptised person, and only such a person, can be baptised. [On whether a transsexual person may be baptised see Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Answers to several questions, 31.X.2023, no. 1]

§1 To be admitted to baptism, an adult must have manifested the intention to receive baptism, must be adequately instructed in the truths of the faith and in the duties of a Christian, and tested in the Christian life over the course of the catechumenate. The person must moreover be urged to have sorrow for personal sins.
§2 An adult in danger of death may be baptised if, with some knowledge of the principal truths of the faith, he or she has in some manner manifested the intention to receive baptism and promises to observe the requirements of the Christian religion.

Unless there is a grave reason to the contrary, immediately after receiving baptism an adult is to be confirmed, to participate in the celebration of the Eucharist and to receive holy communion.

§1 Parents are obliged to see that their infants are baptised within the first few weeks. As soon as possible after the birth, indeed even before it, they are to approach the parish priest to ask for the sacrament for their child, and to be themselves duly prepared for it.
§2 If the infant is in danger of death, it is to be baptised without any delay.

§1 For an infant to be baptised lawfully it is required:1° that the parents, or at least one of them, or the person who lawfully holds their place, give their consent; [A Response of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts to a particular question, Prot. 18370/2024, 13.XII.2024, deals with situations in which the parents are not in agreement regarding the baptism of the child]2° there must be a founded hope that the infant will be brought up in the Catholic religion subject to
§3; if such hope is altogether lacking, the baptism is to be delayed according to the prescripts of particular law after the parents have been informed of the reason. [Revised wording according to m.p. De concordia inter Codices, 31.V.2016] [On whether two homosexual persons may be regarded as the parents of a child who is to be baptised, and who was adopted or was received by other means, such as surrogacy, see Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Answers to several questions, 31.X.2023, no. 4]
§2 An infant of Catholic parents, indeed even of non-Catholic parents, may in danger of death be baptised even if the parents are opposed to it.
§3 Infants of non-Catholic Christians are licitly baptized if their parents or at least one of them or the person who legitimately takes their place request it and if it is physically or morally impossible for them to approach their own minister. [New paragraph added by m.p. De concordia inter Codices, 31.V.2016]

§1 If there is doubt as to whether a person was baptised or whether a baptism was conferred validly, and after serious enquiry this doubt persists, the person is to be baptised conditionally.
§2 Those baptised in a non-Catholic ecclesial community are not to be baptised conditionally unless there is a serious reason for doubting the validity of their baptism, on the ground of the matter or the form of words used in the baptism, or of the intention of the adult being baptised or of that of the baptising minister.
§3 If in the cases mentioned in §
§1 and 2 a doubt remains about the conferring of the baptism or its validity, baptism is not to be conferred until the doctrine of the sacrament of baptism is explained to the person to be baptised, if that person is an adult. Moreover, the reasons for doubting the validity of the earlier baptism should be given to the person or, where an infant is concerned, to the parents.

An abandoned infant or a foundling is to be baptised unless diligent enquiry establishes that it has already been baptised.

Aborted foetuses, if they are alive, are to be baptised, in so far as this is possible.