The European Court of Justice (ECJ) now has to deal with this question.
The competent Belgian administrative court on Wednesday referred questions on a dispute between the diocese of Ghent and the Belgian data protection authority to the court responsible for interpreting EU law.
The ECJ will now clarify how the individual freedom of religion of those who have left the church and the collective freedom of religion of religious communities must be weighed against each other and whether a note about leaving the church in the baptismal register may replace a complete removal.
The Belgian court can then decide the case on the basis of the ECJ's answers.
The Data Protection Authority ruled in favour of a person who had left the church in December 2023who had demanded that the diocese of Ghent delete his data from the baptismal register, citing the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The diocese of Ghent, together with the parish that keeps the baptismal register, had pointed out that the permanent record of baptism was absolutely necessary for theological reasons.
The rights of the person leaving the baptismal register were satisfied with a note of withdrawal, especially as baptismal registers are not publicly accessible and are kept in a protected location.
In its decision, the supervisory authority did not agree with the church's position that the documentation of baptism was merely a historical fact that was also necessary for religious purposes.
The diocese had appealed against the decision of the data protection supervisory the competent court, the Brussels Market Court, court.
Data protection supervisory authority pleased with decision
In an initial reaction, Hielke Hijmans, Chairman of the Dispute Chamber of the Data Protection Authority, welcomed the decision of the Market Court: "This is a very pleasing judgement for the Data Protection Authority, which follows our analysis on many points and brings the fundamental question of the balance between data protection and religious freedom before the highest European court."
The diocese of Ghent has not yet commented.
In Belgium, the number of people leaving the church rose following the broadcast of a TV documentary about abuse in the church in autumn 2023.
In the course of the nationwide discussion, the how the church deals with people leaving the church. In particular, the refusal to delete baptismal records when people leave the church was met with massive criticism.
The decision by the Belgian data protection authority is the first in which a right to erasure has been confirmed.
In September 2023, the Irish data protection authority published a comprehensive decision in which it came to the opposite conclusion and rejected a complaint against the Archdiocese of Dublin.
Courts in France and Slovenia have also already rejected requests for the erasure of baptismal records.
The current Belgian case stems from a complaint made in 2021.
According to the authority, it also has other proceedings in the area of leaving the church.
Some of the other complainants have also joined the proceedings before the Market Court as parties to the proceedings.