Legal Norms Related to Processing of the Personal Data: Aspects of the Autonomous Regulations on Data Protection in the Catholic Church

Abstract

The paper presents an important topic of personal data protection. The relevant EU normative acts of 2016 made the Catholic Church adjust her policy with the national law contained in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The aim of this article is to examine the legal protection measures imposed by the provisions of GDPR and the Personal Data Protection Act in the context of the regulatory autonomy of the Catholic Church. The analysis is based on the dogma- tic and the legal method. As a result, it was found that the regulatory autonomy of the Catholic Church provided for in the Decree is of exclusive in character, in the remaining issues – not excluded by it – one ought to apply GDPR regulations. The GDPR does not violate the status granted to churches and religious associations or communities under the constitutional law of the Member States, but cannot grant more regulatory autonomy than that resulting from the current, in this case, Polish constitutional regulation.