European court: Church must erase baptism record on demand
October 02, 2026
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CWN Editor's Note: The European Court of Justice has ruled that the Catholic Church should comply with a request to delete the record of an individual’s baptism.
In a case involving the Diocese of Ghent, in Belgium, the Court rule that European data-protection laws apply to baptismal records, and someone who was baptized as a child has the right to have the sacramental record erased. The court allowed, however, that a national court could allow the baptismal record to be retained if the Church offered “compelling legitimate grounds” for keeping it.
In its finding the European Court of Justice said that the Catholic Church had not shown that its sacramental records should be treated differently from the records of other institutions, and therefore the Church is subject to data-protection laws.
The policy of the Ghent diocese has been to retain the record of an individual’s baptism, but on request to note the individual’s decision to leave the Church.
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