Who Decides What a Baptismal Is For? Church Autonomy and EU Data Protection Law
Francisca Pérez-Madrid is Professor of Law and Religion at the University of Barcelona.
On 1 October 2026, Advocate General (AG) Laila Medina of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered her opinion in the Diocese of Ghent (Bisdom Ghent) (C-12/25). The opinion addresses whether individuals who leave the Catholic Church can rely on the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in requesting removal of their names from a baptismal register. In keeping with CJEU procedure, the opinion precedes and can inform the Court’s final judgment on the matter. The AG opinion does not recognize an automatic right to erasure, and it discusses respect for church autonomy. Nevertheless, in my view, the opinion is concerning because it leaves to the discretion of each national court a decision that rightly belongs to the religious community itself.