NION (Not In Our Name), the organisation founded to help baptized ex-Catholics to disassociate themselves from the Church, issued a statement today saying “that the Curia has refused its request to delete details of 23 persons from its baptisimal and other records. This request was made after these individuals legally empowered NION to undertake this task on their behalf.”
“The Curia’s reply refused to recognise NION as the legal representative of these individuals in this matter, and offered to instead annotate the baptisimal register only for the person acting on behalf of the others. This annotation would presumably indicate that the person in question left the Catholic Church,” the statement said.
NION said that “the Curia refused to delete the data using the argument that the data was processed according to law and that this information is used only relative to the administration of the Holy Sacraments, and is not disclosed to anyone except to the persons mentioned in the registration of the sacrament.”
NION continued that it “wishes to express its disappointment with regards to such reply. By not recognising NION as an attorney, the Curia is creating unnecessary bureaucracy and incovnenience in order to discourage people who wish to take this step.”
NION said that it “also disputes the fact that the data has been processed according to law, since, amongst a host of other reasons, the individuals represented by it have withdrawn their consent from it being processed.”
“Annotation of the baptisimal register could result in a black list of individuals, leaving them exposed to victimization on religious grounds.”
NION went on to say that it “believes it is the right of these individuals to request the deletion of their personal data, especially when they do not trust the Church to administer the annotated data in their interest.”
NION concluded the statement by saying “that it will be approaching the Data Protection Commissioner with the intention of securing the rights of the individuals it represents and to ensure that the Church is not exempt from the rule of law.”