Swedish Christian parents fight ECtHR after state seizes daughters for church attendance, labeling faith “extremism” despite retracted abuse claim.
Newsroom (31/10/2025, Gaudium Press ) A Romanian Christian couple living in Sweden has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) after child-welfare authorities permanently separated them from two daughters based on a retracted school complaint and the family’s thrice-weekly Mass attendance—practices the state branded “religious extremism.”
Daniel and Bianca Samson, parents of seven, filed the case with legal support from ADF International after Sweden’s Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal in March 2025. The couple, who had resided legally in Sweden for nearly a decade, consented to temporary foster care in December 2022 while police investigated an 11-year-old daughter’s claim of abuse. Prosecutors closed the file within weeks for lack of evidence; the girl, Sara, immediately recanted, saying she had lied because her parents denied her a smartphone and makeup.
Yet Swedish social services never returned Sara or her 10-year-old sister Tiana. Instead, officials pivoted to a new accusation: the parents’ “active Christian life” posed a risk. Court documents show the state cited the family’s attendance at Sunday Mass, midweek Bible study, and a Friday prayer group as proof of extremism. The Samsons are now limited to one supervised visit per month, with the girls housed in separate foster homes hundreds of kilometers apart.
Cleared of Abuse, Still Barred from Children
Between January and June 2024, Daniel and Bianca completed a state-mandated parenting course. The two therapists who led it certified the couple “fully capable” of raising children. Social services ignored the report. Sara’s health has collapsed in care; her parents say both girls have attempted suicide and suffer acute anxiety. “She begs to come home,” Bianca told Catholic News Agency. “The state is punishing her for telling the truth.”
Robert Clarke, ADF International’s Europe director, called the case “a textbook violation of Articles 8 and 9 of the European Convention—respect for family life and freedom of religion.” He noted that the ECtHR has condemned similar overreach in Strand Lobben v. Norway (2019) and Van Slooten v. the Netherlands (2025), where authorities ignored exonerating evidence and prolonged separations.
From Temporary Care to Indefinite Exile
The seizure began when Sara, upset over the phone ban, told a teacher her father had hit her. Police found no marks, no prior reports, and no corroboration. Sara admitted the lie the same day. The Samsons agreed to a 30-day foster placement “to calm the situation,” Daniel said. That placement has now lasted nearly three years. The girls have cycled through at least three foster homes; siblings have been forbidden contact with each other.
Swedish law requires reunification once risk is ruled out. Yet when abuse charges evaporated, social workers introduced the religious-extremism label. In court, the state’s lawyer argued that limiting makeup and social media at ages 10 and 11 demonstrated “psychological control.” The Samsons countered that such boundaries are standard Catholic formation and protected parental prerogative.
Europe-Wide Pattern of Child-Welfare Overreach
The Samson case echoes a string of ECtHR rulings against Nordic and Western European states. Norway’s Barnevernet has lost more than 30 cases for seizing children on thin cultural pretexts. In 2023, a Dutch Pentecostal family fled to Poland to escape similar intervention. Romania, the Samsons’ country of origin, offered to place the girls with licensed Christian foster families, but Sweden rejected the transfer.
Romanian parliamentarians have taken up the cause; last month Daniel addressed a Bucharest committee on religious liberty. “We came to Sweden for safety,” he said. “Instead the state tore our family apart for going to church.”
A Plea Rooted in Natural and Divine Law
From a Catholic perspective, the case strikes at the heart of the Church’s teaching on the family as the “domestic church” (Familiaris Consortio, 21). Parents hold the primary right and duty to educate children in faith and morals; the state may intervene only in grave, proven necessity. Here, necessity vanished the moment Sara recanted—yet the state substituted ideological conformity for evidence.
The Samsons ask the Strasbourg court to order immediate reunification, strike down the religious-extremism finding, and award damages for the girls’ documented trauma. A ruling is expected in 2026.
“God entrusted these children to us, not to bureaucrats,” Daniel said outside the ECtHR filing office. “We trust the Court will remind Sweden that faith is not a crime.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Zenit News
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