Church leavers could claim a right to erase baptismal data, EU adviser says

Advocate General Laila Medina told the EU's top court that leaving the Catholic Church could entitle a person to erase personal details from baptismal records, unless the Church can show compelling reasons to keep them. The case stems from a Belgian man, baptized in Ghent in 1955, who asked the diocese to remove his data 66 years later; the diocese noted his departure but left his details readable, prompting a complaint and a 2023 erasure order from Belgium's data authority. Medina found EU privacy law applies to paper baptismal registers and that a mere departure note or crossed-out line wouldn't satisfy erasure, though opaque stickers covering details might.

Medina questioned why the man's specific record needed keeping at all, noting his return seemed unlikely. Church-affiliated experts warned the approach could undermine record integrity or strip baptismal registers of meaning, while privacy advocates called the opinion a win for anyone wanting out, cleanly. The underlying tension, raised but not resolved, is a canon law provision letting some churches keep their own data rules in certain EU countries.

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