Section III. On the Time and Place of Conferring Baptism

I. Time. 1. Private Baptism, when necessity urges, is to be administered at any time and place (canon 771).

2. Even solemn Baptism can be administered on any day; nevertheless it is fitting that the Baptism of adults, according to the most ancient rite, be conferred, if it can conveniently be done, on the vigils of Easter and Pentecost, especially in metropolitan or cathedral churches (canon 772).

II. Place. 1. Private Baptism, when necessity urges, is to be administered at any time and place (canon 771). The same holds for private Baptism which is conferred outside urgent necessity, that is, for Baptism which, by permission of the Ordinary, is administered privately and conditionally to an adult heretic (cf. canon 759, § 2); and for every conditional Baptism which is conferred without ceremonies (cf. canon 760); if the ceremonies are supplied, this is to be done in a church or public oratory (cf. canon 759, § 3).

2. With respect to solemn Baptism, the following hold:

a) The proper place for administering solemn Baptism is the baptistery in a church or public oratory (canon 773). Hence every parochial church, any contrary statute or privilege or custom being revoked and reprobated, is to have a baptismal font, saving the legitimate cumulative right already acquired by other churches (canon 774, § 1).¹ Besides, for the convenience of the faithful the local Ordinary can permit or order that a baptismal font be placed also in another church or public oratory within the boundaries of the parish (canon 774, § 2).

b) If the person to be baptized, because of the distance of places or other circumstances, cannot approach or be transferred to the parish church, or to another church which enjoys the right of a font, without grave inconvenience or danger, solemn Baptism can and must be conferred by the pastor in the nearest church or public oratory within the boundaries of the parish, even though these lack a baptismal font (canon 775).

c) But in private houses solemn Baptism must not be administered, except in these circumstances: 1. if those to be baptized are the children or grandchildren of those who actually hold supreme rule over peoples or have the right of succession to the throne, whenever they have duly requested this; 2. if the local Ordinary, according to his prudent judgment and conscience, has judged that it should be conceded in some extraordinary case for a just and reasonable cause (canon 776, § 1).² In the cases mentioned, Baptism is to be conferred in the chapel of the house or at least in another decent place, and with baptismal water blessed in the usual way (canon 776, § 2).

In places of the missions, where Catholics live far from a church and infants cannot be brought to the church without great dangers and inconveniences, in those places, I say, the permission to baptize solemnly at home seems to persist.³

Note. Let pastors see to it that a Christian name be imposed on the one who is baptized; but if they cannot obtain this, let them add to the name imposed by the parents the name of some Saint, and write both names in the book of the baptized (canon 761). This addition can be made in a low voice.⁴ Note, however, that there are many names of saints which occur rarely, or have been taken from other languages and altered.

¹ The Pontifical Commission, 12 November 1922, reply to IV, declared that canon 774, § 1 is to be understood so that a church which has the right of a font cumulatively with other parochial churches of the whole city obtains it also before parochial churches newly erected in the city with a baptismal font. But the cumulative right of a font cannot in future be obtained by custom, which must be called corruption. A church which before the promulgation of the Code had an exclusive right of font before other parochial churches, after the promulgation of the Code and the erection of a font in the same churches according to the prescription of the cited canon, obtains only a cumulative right, saving the prescription of canon 778 (A.A.S. 1922, p. 662). Canon 778 prescribes that the pastor of the baptized person be informed.

² The Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments, 22 July 1925 (A.A.S. 1925, p. 452), to the question "whether the practice is conformable to law according to which infants who are not in danger of death, but cannot be transferred to the church without danger, are solemnly baptized at home by the pastor or by another priest with the pastor's permission," responded that it is conformable to law that, if the infant is not in danger of death but cannot without danger be transferred to the church according to canon 775, the Ordinary, by force of canon 776, § 1, n. 2, can permit, according to his prudent judgment and conscience, for a just and reasonable cause, in some extraordinary case, that Baptism be solemnly administered at home; but judging the gravity of the extraordinary case is left to the prudence and conscience of the Ordinary himself in individual cases.

³ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 4 February 1871 (n. 3234, reply to III).

⁴ Holy Office, June 1883.