Baptisms

Features

Birth Certificate Deletion on Completion

When a baptism request is marked as COMPLETED (indicating the baptism ceremony has taken place), the uploaded birth certificate documents are automatically deleted to comply with GDPR data minimisation principles.

Process:

1. Trigger: Status transitions to COMPLETED for baptism requests
2. Deletion Scope: Only documents with documentType = 'birth_certificate' are deleted — baptism certificates are retained for parish records
3. Execution Order:
   • First: Delete the S3 file and database record
   • Then: Commit the status change in a Prisma transaction
4. Failure Handling: If S3 deletion fails, the completion is blocked and an error is returned — GDPR requires actual data deletion
5. User Confirmation: A confirmation dialog warns users that birth certificates will be permanently deleted (skipped if no birth certificate documents exist)
6. Audit Trail: A note “Birth certificate permanently deleted (GDPR compliance)” is appended to the request’s review history

Canonical Considerations

Under GDPR and Irish Catholic Church requirements:

• Baptismal Register is a permanent sacramental record kept in perpetuity
• Application data (birth certificates, parent details) should only be retained as long as necessary for the sacrament process
• Data minimisation — delete what is no longer needed once the ceremony is complete