The resolution of the case could have consequences for dioceses throughout the European Union and has led European bishops to warn of possible interference in the autonomy of the Church.
The dispute originated in Belgium and pits the Diocese of Ghent against the country’s Data Protection Authority.
The matter has reached Luxembourg as case C-12/25, Bisdom Gent, after a Belgian court referred several preliminary questions to the CJEU on the interpretation of the right to erasure recognized by the GDPR. The Court held the hearing on 30 June.
An apostate demanded that his baptism disappear from the register
The origin of the case lies with a person who had been baptized in the Catholic Church and subsequently expressed their intention to leave it. They requested that all references to their person be removed from ecclesiastical registers and archives.
The Diocese of Ghent did not delete the baptismal record. Instead, it added a marginal annotation to the register stating the interested party’s intention to leave the Church, a procedure that preserves the historical and sacramental fact of baptism without presenting the interested party as a practicing member of the Church.
The person then turned to the Belgian Data Protection Authority, which in December 2023 ordered the diocese to erase their data from the baptismal register.
The authority acknowledged that the right to erasure under the GDPR is not absolute and that the Church has a legitimate interest in keeping records of baptisms. However, it considered that, in this specific case, retaining the interested party’s data for their entire lifetime was disproportionate once they had unequivocally expressed their desire to dissociate themselves from the Church.
The diocese appealed the decision and the Brussels Court of Appeal decided to refer the matter to the CJEU, which will have to establish how Article 17 of the GDPR should be interpreted in this scenario.
European bishops warn of interference in the autonomy of the Church
Given the possible repercussions of the case, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) published a legal document on 3 September defending the integrity of baptismal registers.
The European bishops maintain that the controversy goes far beyond a simple administrative question about the retention of personal data. In their view, what is at stake is how far European legislation can go in intervening in the internal organization of a religious denomination.
COMECE recalls that the baptismal register fulfills an essential function in canon law. Baptism constitutes the gateway to the other sacraments and produces a reality that, for the Church, cannot simply cease to exist by the subsequent will of the baptized person.
For this reason, the Commission considers that forcing the Church to delete this data would affect its institutional autonomy and religious freedom.
Baptism cannot be «erased»
The issue presents a particularity that distinguishes these registers from a simple database of members: for the Catholic Church, baptism imprints character and cannot be repeated or annulled.
Canon 849 of the Code of Canon Law defines baptism as necessary for salvation and states that through it the person is incorporated into the Church. For its part, Canon 845 establishes that baptism, confirmation and holy orders, by imprinting character, «cannot be repeated.»
Therefore, keeping the register allows verification that a person has already validly received the sacrament. It is also necessary for subsequent canonical actions, especially when other sacraments are administered or a marriage is processed.
COMECE also rejects the idea that the baptismal register can be equated with a current list of Church members. A marginal annotation stating a person’s intention to leave the Church allows that decision to be reflected without altering the historical fact that they received baptism.
It also affects parents, godparents and marriages
The European bishops warn of another consequence: a baptismal record does not contain information exclusively about the baptized person.
It also includes data relating to parents, godparents and the minister who administered the sacrament. Their deletion could therefore affect third parties and alter the integrity of documents that certify historical events.
COMECE also highlights the importance of these records in the Church’s matrimonial procedures and recalls that, outside the strictly canonical sphere, sacramental records have served as evidence in civil matters related to inheritances, nationality, pensions, property or birth registration.
This is compounded by their value as a historical and genealogical source.
European courts have not maintained a uniform criterion
The Ghent case may be particularly relevant because until now European national authorities have given different responses to this conflict.
The documentation of the proceedings before the CJEU itself notes, for example, that the Irish data protection authority considered in 2023 that an archbishop could invoke a legitimate interest in retaining the data contained in a baptismal register even when the interested party no longer wished to be associated with the Church. An administrative court in Slovenia had also supported the retention of such data due to its archival value.
In Spain there are also judicial precedents on the relationship between religious registers and data protection. The Supreme Court has recognized, in a case concerning Jehovah’s Witnesses, that a denomination may retain certain minimum data of a person who has left it when necessary for its own religious purposes.
The arrival of the Belgian litigation in Luxembourg now raises for the first time the possibility of establishing a European interpretation of the GDPR specifically applicable to Catholic baptismal registers.
A decision with consequences for the entire European Church
The proceedings have not yet been resolved. The Advocate General of the CJEU, Tamara Ćapeta Medina, is scheduled to present her opinion on 1 October 2026. Subsequently, the Court will issue its judgment.
Although the litigation arose from a single baptism registered in a Belgian parish, the interpretation established by the CJEU on the GDPR will have to be taken into account by the courts of the Member States.
For COMECE, therefore, the substance of the matter does not consist solely in determining how long a personal data point may be retained. The question is also whether European law can force a religious denomination to modify the registers through which it leaves legal and historical record of the administration of one of its sacraments.