Privacy and religion

Baptismal register: you can have your personal data deleted under the GDPR

The right to privacy of the individual is pitted against the institutional autonomy and religious freedom of churches. The case before the Court of Justice of the European Union

by Camilla Colombo

2 October 2026

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2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

One might almost be tempted to smile at the association between baptismal registers and the European General Data Protection Regulation (known as GDPR), yet the issue touches on such significant aspects of everyday life in contemporary society – particularly the balance between rights and freedoms, between private interests and religious autonomy – that it has reached the Court of Justice of the European Union. The case (Case C-12/25) weighs up, on the one hand, the institutional autonomy and religious freedom of churches to maintain their own parish registers, and the rights relating to the protection of the private life of the data subject, on the other. At the heart of any discussion on this matter lies the answer to a question that is only apparently technical: does the GDPR apply to the registers of baptised persons in the Catholic faith? The conclusions of the Advocate General at the Court, Laila Medina, point to an affirmative answer.

The story

A Belgian citizen, who was baptised into the Catholic faith as a child, has asked the Diocese of Ghent to remove all references to him from all registers and archives, both paper and digital, citing the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679).

The diocese recorded the request to leave the Church, redacting the individual’s personal data but choosing to retain it in a readable format. This approach did not satisfy the individual, who decided to lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority, which ordered the diocese to delete the aforementioned data.

The diocese did not accept the ruling, preferring instead to challenge the decision before a Belgian court, which, in turn, asked the Court of Justice how the GDPR should be interpreted in this context.

The Court’s conclusions

Advocate General Laila Medina summarised the key conclusions of these legal proceedings point by point:

The GDPR applies to the case in question, so the processing of data must comply with the European regulation;
a person may request the erasure of data from the baptismal register by lodging a formal objection to the processing;
The balancing of the interests at stake is a matter for the national court, which must carry out a case-by-case assessment;
the Church may be entitled to retain an individual’s data for archiving purposes in the public interest or for historical research;
if the court rules in favour of erasing the data, it must be rendered unreadable so that the person is no longer identified or identifiable.

The role of the national judge

Given the complexity of balancing two sets of competing interests and rights, both of which deserve significant protection under EU law – on the one hand, the claimant’s right to respect for private and family life, to the protection of personal data, and to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; on the other, the autonomy of the Church and its freedom of thought, conscience and religion – the national court must carry out a case-by-case assessment which cannot be conducted in the abstract. The national court should, in fact, take into account the reasons underlying the request for erasure and the possible impact of a refusal on the data subject, since the prolonged retention of personal data by a religious community from which one wishes to distance oneself may infringe the right to self-determination and, in particular circumstances, cause emotional distress. On the other hand, if the Church is authorised to retain an individual’s data for purposes of public interest or historical research, it is for the national court to verify that the processing is indeed carried out for those purposes, that rights and freedoms are guaranteed in accordance with national and EU law, and that the principle of data minimisation is respected.

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