257. Who can receive Baptism?
(Comp
257) Every person not yet baptized is able to receive Baptism.
“In
brief”
(CCC
1246) "Every person not yet baptized and only such a person is able to be
baptized" (CIC,
can. 864; cf. CCEO, can. 679).
To deepen and
explain
(CCC
1247) Since the beginning
of the Church, adult Baptism is the common practice where the proclamation of
the Gospel is still new. The catechumenate (preparation for Baptism) therefore
occupies an important place. This initiation into Christian faith and life
should dispose the catechumen to receive the gift of God in Baptism,
Confirmation, and the Eucharist. (CCC 1248)
The catechumenate, or formation of catechumens, aims at bringing their
conversion and faith to maturity, in response to the divine initiative and in
union with an ecclesial community. The catechumenate is to be "a formation
in the whole Christian life… during which the disciples will be joined to
Christ their teacher. The catechumens should be properly initiated into the
mystery of salvation and the practice of the evangelical virtues, and they
should be introduced into the life of faith, liturgy, and charity of the People
of God by successive sacred rites" (AG 14; cf. RCIA 19; 98). (CCC 1249) Catechumens "are already joined to
the Church, they are already of the household of Christ, and are quite
frequently already living a life of faith, hope, and charity" (AG 14 § 5).
"With love and solicitude mother Church already embraces them as her
own" (LG 14 § 3; cf. CIC, can. 206; 788 § 3).
On
reflection
(CCC
1250) Born with a
fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the
new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into
the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called
(Cf. Council of Trent (1546): DS 1514; cf. Col 1:12-14). The sheer
gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant
Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of
becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth
(Cf. CIC, can. 867; CCEO, cann. 681; 686, 1). (CCC 1251)
Christian parents will recognize that this practice also accords with their
role as nurturers of the life that God has entrusted to them (Cf. LG 11; 41; GS
48; CIC, can. 868). (CCC 1252) The practice of
infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit
testimony to this practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible
that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching, when whole "households"
received baptism, infants may also have been baptized (Cf. Acts 16:15, 33;
18:8; 1 Cor 1:16; CDF, instruction, Pastoralis actio: AAS 72 (1980) 1137-1156).
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