Teologiczne podstawy Dekretu ogólnego KEP z dnia 13 marca 2018 roku w sprawie ochrony osób fizycznych

The actual and legal-doctrinal legitimacy of constructing alegal norm is an important issue in every legal order. The more important it becomes to determine them when they belong to the inner reality of the Church. Currently, in secular law, regulations regarding the personal data protection have become an issue requiring the attention of various enti-ties, including religious associations. In 2018, the Catholic Church in Poland, as arespond to this situation and to the current needs of the faithful, issued aDecree regulating the protection of personal data in the Church. This decree is part of the canon law system.Canon law is strongly related to theology. It regulates the life of the faithful, which in every area is an important manifestation of the principles of faith. The theological dimension of the foundations of the Decree can be clearly seen in the following: 1) the leg-islator is also a teacher of faith, 2) the concern of the legislator is human dignity, 3) the De-cree cares for the freedom and independence of the Church, 4) the Decree protects the right to privacy.Thus, the Decree has solid theological foundations and goals that must be extracted and which the interpretation of the Decree shall be based on. This is necessary because the wording and text editing of the Decree is defective and raise serious reservations of canon-ists. As a consequence, it endangers the results of the application of its legal norms. Getting to know the theological foundations can help to make the aforementioned law contribute to the rule salus animarum.