Are there churches that do not have the Baptismal font?

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I would just like to ask if there are any catholic church/chapels which do not have baptismal font or any other kind of fonts in them. I have noticed that inside/outside of our chapel does not have any fonts set. Is it possible also that the Fonts are absent in Catholic Churches?
 
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Yes, certainly there are such churches. What arrangements they make when a baptism is scheduled, I don’t know. It’s an interesting question. I’ll ask, when I get the opportunity.
 
Such churches usually have a portable font of some sort - usually a bowl on a pedestal type thing - that is brought out for the baptism.

Many Catholic churches that don’t have a permanent font built into the church have incorporated some kind of a movable font in the front sanctuary area. When we got married, our priest had such a font set up front and center at the entrance of the sanctuary. He refused to move it even for weddings, which caused our photographer to be annoyed at having to shoot around it. I noticed that when the priest retired, his successor did move the font somewhere else. It’s more normal to have it sitting off to the side of the sanctuary.
 
Our son was baptized at the parish where I grew up. The first Church for that parish had a baptistry room (with an iron gate blocking the door) in the back of the church. It had a pedestal font. When the new Church at that parish was built, the old font was moved to the front of the Church off to the side of the altar. But when our son was baptized they moved the pedestal to in front of the altar. (There were something like seven other infant baptisms so it was easier for all the people to fit than if it were off to the side.)

When our parish was new we were meeting in the seminary chapel. (The lot where our church would eventually be built was carved out of the seminary grounds. There was no baptismal font in the seminary chapel. When our daughters were baptized they had large portable basins (one was shaped like a clam shell) that they used. For the Easter Vigil, they would bring in a small portable pool (which was nicely decorated) that adults would kneel in and water would be poured over their heads from a large water jug.

When our parish church was eventually constructed we had an in ground baptismal pool with a smaller fountain that feeds into it constructed in the main entryway into the nave. The in ground font is where adults are baptized and the smaller raised font basin is used for infants.

So lots of possibilities: No permanent font, a font hidden in a baptistry, a font in front, a font near the entrance to the Church, a font somewhere else. I would not be surprised if some parishes in warm climates have outdoor fonts.
 
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My son was baptized at an outdoor chapel. The parish has a font which they move in and out.
PS. It was August
 
I cannot say with regards to chapels and oratories, but all churches, ie parish churches, cathedrals, etc should have a baptismal font. The church would be incomplete without one. I do not recall ever seeing a church without a baptismal font, although I do know many which have portable ones (which I do not like at all, but that is my opinion). I love old traditional churches which had the baptismal font at the side, in a nave, even behind a gate, as SMHW describes.
The modern idea is to put the font at the entrance to the church, inline with the altar and tabernacle (assuming it is in the church), the idea is it an architectural sign that baptism brings you into the church and towards the other sacraments. The idea is not without merits, but I believe it is less than ideal from a practical standpoint of liturgy. Other new churches are being built with them in the front, to the side of the altar. I actually like this. It works particularly wellfor Easter Vigil mass.
 
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An outdoor chapel? Could you describe or show pictures, I am curious.
 
Are you sure about this? Where do you see catholic churches without baptismal fonts?
 
Not all churches have fonts. This is because baptism is properly a parochial function. A infant should be baptised in the proper parish of the parents and an adult in their own proper parish. An example of churches without fonts would be monastic churches. Monastic communities do not generally baptise people so the church attached of an abbey, priory or other monastery will not have a font.
 
I did not think a “church” attached to an abbey or priory, or other monastery was referred to technically as a church, unless it is also serving as a parish to a local community.

When our building committee took classes on Church architecture, it started with “what makes a catholic church”. To be complete, the absolute essentials were listed as altar, tabernacle, ambo, confessional, and baptismal font. We were told without those it was incomplete, not a church.
 
Yes, of course I’m sure. What a question. It takes no great skill or specialized architectural knowledge to detect the presence or absence of a baptismal font.
 
Sorry, didn’t mean to offend. I just found it surprising. I literally cannot think of one church that I have ever been in that did not have one. Chapels and oratoris: yes. A parish church? no.
 
Can. 858 §1. Every parish church is to have a baptismal font, without prejudice to the cumulative right already acquired by other churches.
§2. After having heard the local pastor, the local ordinary can permit or order for the convenience of the faithful that there also be a baptismal font in another church or oratory within the boundaries of the parish.
 
In the parish where I grew up, the baptistry was a decoratively fenced off section of the sacristy. Saw it often as the sacristy also had an altar and tabernacle and daily Mass was often celebrated there.
 
Our baptismal font used to be located in a room not much larger than a closet, behind a locked door. Back in the late 1800s, that’s where they had water access.
 
From the Ceremonial of Bishops:

“VI. Use of Holy Water

110 It is an old and honoured practice for all who enter a church to dip their hand in a font (stoup) of holy water and sign themselves with the sign of the cross as a reminder of their baptism.”
 
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Depends what you mean by “traditional”. The medieval cathedrals of Florence and Pisa have their baptistries physically separated from the churches proper. Only the baptized entered the church.
 
They are indeed churches. A church is a place that is open for public worship. Its architectural features do not determine whether or not it is. Your very limited definition would exclude cathedrals, but they, too, are churches.
 
TomH1 said:
They are indeed churches. A church is a place that is open for public worship. Its architectural features do not dete_emphasized text_rmine whether or not it is. Your very limited definition would exclude cathedrals, but they, too, are churches.
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We all colloquially refer to places of Christian worship as churches. But from the strictly Catholic point of view, a church is a place of worship that is connected to a parish. Thus, a cathedral would normally be considered a church. As such, you would expect a baptismal font.

It seems to me that there is an intersection between chapels and oratories. A chapel is a smaller place of worship that may be physically part of a larger church/cathedral or it may be a free standing building. But it is tied to a parish. An oratory is a free standing building that could be a chapel for a parish or could be independent of a parish, such as the worship location for a monastery. An oratory might have a baptismal font but there would be not really have to be one.
 
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Cathedrals most certainly serve a local community: the diocese. At some level, architectural features must determine if it is a church or not. Can you have a church without an altar?

Here is the formal definition, note “public worship”, which is what I meant by an local community, my terminology is slightly crossed I admit:

Can. 1214 By the term church is understood a sacred building designated for divine worship to which the faithful have the right of entry for the exercise, especially the public exercise, of divine worship.

Now, we get to oratories and chapels:

Can. 1223 By the term oratory is understood a place for divine worship designated by permission of the ordinary for the benefit of some community or group of the faithful who gather in it and to which other members of the faithful can also come with the consent of the competent superior.

Note: on this one it is not necessarily open to the faithful at large.

And then we have chapels, even more restricted (note daily chapels in a parish church or side chapels in a bascillica or cathedral are technically part of that church).

Can. 1226 By the term private chapel is understood a place for divine worship designated by permission of the local ordinary for the benefit of one or more physical persons.

Then we have shrines:

Can. 1230 By the term shrine is understood a church or other sacred place to which numerous members of the faithful make pilgrimage for a special reason of piety, with the approval of the local ordinary.

So, I suppose there could be a church, that is not a parish church (or cathedral) has to have a baptismal font. Oratoris and chapels would not. Basilicas and Cathedrals would.
 
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