Madam Minister,
The International Association of Free Thought (AILP), of which the National Federation of Free Thought (FNLP) is one of the founding members, has just sent a letter to the president of the Church of Jesus-Christ of the Latter-day Saints to ask him to direct Family Search International to stop taking over “the identity of all deceased persons known to him […] if it has the effect of enrolling the deceased atheists, agnostics, deists, free thinkers or members of other religions in the caravan of Latter-day Saints, In defiance of their own respect and without their families knowing.”
For its part, the FNLP has just submitted to the French National Commission of Information Technology and Freedoms (CNIL) a request to revoke decision no. 2013-105 of 25 April 2013 by which this independent administrative authority authorised Family Search International, closely related to the Mormon cult, on the one hand, to retain “[…] civil status records and census documents under the conditions described above, pursuant to section 36 paragraph 3 of the Act of 6 January 1978 as amended […]”, on the other hand, to transfer “[…] to the United States of [s] personal data whose characteristics are set out above, pursuant to Article 69 of the Act of 6 January 1978 as amended.” The CNIL thus validated the agreements concluded in 1960 and 1987 between the French Republic, then represented by the Archives of France attached to your ministry, and the Church of Jesus Christ of the Saints of the Last Days.
This decision does not raise questions relating to the post-mortem processing of civil status data but seems incompatible with the guarantee of freedom of conscience, fundamental principle recognised by the laws of the Republic and Article 1 of the Law of 9 December 1905 on the separation of Churches and States and Article 9 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 4 November 1950. The French Revolution secularized the civil status on 20 September 1792 to entrust it to public officials in order to free citizens from any religious guardianship. In these conditions, cults cannot take over these data for dogmatic purposes after the death of persons. Imagine Jean Jaurès or President Émile Combes receiving a baptism for the dead and their relatives from a genealogical exploitation by the company Family Search International in order to sublimate their «eternal families».
This problem also concerns the living who wish to have their identity erased from the registers kept by the cults in so far as, according to national case law, the only mention «denied his baptism» on the margins of those preserved by the Roman Church would suffice to guarantee their freedom of conscience.
We therefore propose that the Government supplement the Heritage Code with the following provisions:
1°- creation of an article L. 213-1-1 as follows: “The public records of civil status documents shall not be processed for religious purposes without the consent of the persons concerned expressed during their lifetime, their legal representative or their ascendants or descendants after their death”;
2°- creation of an article L. 211-5-1, which reads as follows: “The records of the faithful kept by the cults shall be used to erase the identity of persons who request it during their lifetime by any means or whose legal representative makes such a request.”
Please believe, Madam Minister, that I have the assurance of my highest consideration.
P.O. the Vice President
Dominique GOUSSOT
Madam Minister
– Cabinet –
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75001 PARIS