Broglio: US personnel could disobey ‘immoral’ orders against Greenland

The Archbishop of the Military Services said that Trump administration’s threat to attack the territory ‘tarnishes the image of the United States in our world’.

Catholic personnel in the US military could in good conscience consider disobeying orders to attack Greenland, according to the bishop responsible for their pastoral care.

The Archbishop of the Military Services Timothy Broglio said personnel “could be put in a situation where they’re being ordered to do something that’s morally questionable” if the US acted on President Donald Trump’s threats of military action to take control of Greenland.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday programme on 18 January, Archbishop Broglio said it would be “very difficult for a soldier or a marine or a sailor by himself to disobey an order such as that”, but “within the realm of their own conscience it would be morally acceptable to disobey”.

In December, the archbishop issued a statement condemning a “second strike” by US forces on an alleged drug trafficking vessel in the Caribbean, insisting that “the moral principle forbidding the intentional killing of noncombatants is inviolable”.

He told Sunday he was concerned as a pastor to military personnel that US policy ignored “the proper way and the moral way to respond to these situations”.

“Men and women under my charge were being forced to engage in situations that were not necessary,” he said, referring to the strikes in the Caribbean. Any action against Greenland, he continued, “doesn’t seem necessary, doesn’t seem acceptable”.

“Greenland is a territory of Denmark [and] Denmark is an ally,” he said. “It does not seem really reasonable that the United States would attack and occupy a friendly nation.”

President Trump and senior members of his administration have escalated their demands for control of the territory, claiming Greenland is integral to US security although Denmark is a fellow member of Nato.

Over the weekend, Trump sent a letter to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre saying he “no longer [felt] an obligation to think purely of peace” because he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize and would instead “think about what is good and proper” for the US.

In his comments to Sunday, Broglio observed that “some of the rhetoric is more concerning than some of the actions” but warned that this could still have negative consequences.

“It tarnishes the image of the United States in our world,” he said.

Speaking to reporters in Rome on Saturday, the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin called for international cooperation to resolve the crisis.

“Solutions by force cannot be employed, but we must return to that spirit of multilateralism that has characterised the postwar years and is unfortunately being lost,” he said.

“Everybody thinks they can resolve difficult situations or assert their own position only by force. This is not acceptable and will always lead closer to a conflict, to a war within the international community.”

The friars of the Conventual Franciscan Mission in Denmark are responsible for the pastoral care of Catholics in Greenland, who number around 500 of its roughly 55,000 people.

Fr Tomaž Majcen OFM Conv, the parish priest of the Church of Christ the King in the capital Nuuk, told the Archdiocese of Cologne’s outlet Domradio that Greenlanders speak of the US threat “with a mix of worry and quiet determination”, and that his parishioners discuss it “not as political debate so much as a human question of safety, dignity and peace”.

“Many feel that outsiders are suddenly talking about their home as if it’s property on a market, which rubs against deep feelings of self-determination,” he said.

“Some folks feel anxious, especially when such comments come from powerful figures. But there’s also a proud confidence in our right as a people to decide our own future – most would strongly oppose becoming part of another country.”

He continued: “At the personal level, Europeans can pray with us, remember us in your communities, and help the wider world see that Greenland is not a chess piece but a people with culture, dignity, and future dreams. Most importantly, solidarity means standing with our right to self-determination and listening when we say: ‘We choose who we want to be.’”

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