By Giorgi Dvalishvili ( October 1, 2026, 09:49 GMT | Insight) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of the Belgian city of Ghent must justify retaining baptismal data after an objection, a senior adviser to the EU’s highest court said on Thursday. Belgian judges must weigh the church's religious freedom against the person's privacy rights, while assessing any archiving claim, Advocate General Laila Medina said. Her nonbinding opinion follows a Belgian privacy regulator's order against the diocese, and it could guide how religious organizations respond to GDPR erasure requests.The Roman Catholic Diocese of the Belgian city of Ghent must justify keeping a man’s details in its baptismal register after he objected to their use, a senior adviser to the EU’s highest court has said. The right to erasure under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation can apply to baptismal records, but Belgian judges must decide whether the diocese has grounds to retain his data....
Prepare for tomorrow’s regulatory change, today
MLex identifies risk to business wherever it emerges, with specialist reporters across the globe providing exclusive news and deep-dive analysis on the proposals, probes, enforcement actions and rulings that matter to your organization and clients, now and in the longer term.
Know what others in the room don’t, with features including:
- Daily newsletters for Antitrust, M&A, Trade, Data Privacy & Security, Technology, AI and more
- Custom alerts on specific filters including geographies, industries, topics and companies to suit your practice needs
- Predictive analysis from expert journalists across North America, the UK and Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific
- Curated case files bringing together news, analysis and source documents in a single timeline
Experience MLex today with a 14-day free trial.