Infant baptism
The baptism of infants, practiced in paedobaptist traditions.
Infant baptism is the baptism of infants, normally within the first weeks or months after birth, practiced across the paedobaptist Christian traditions: Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and others. The child is initiated into the Christian community through the parents' commitment (and in most traditions the godparents' commitment) to raise the child in the faith. Catholic teaching obliges parents to seek baptism "in the first few weeks" after birth (CIC c. 867 §1). Baptist, evangelical, and most Pentecostal traditions do not practice infant baptism; they hold that baptism follows personal profession of faith (see Believer's baptism).