By Daniel Payne
Jan 20, 2026 / 14:07 pm
Military Archbishop Timothy Broglio says the United States’ threat to use the military to annex Greenland “tarnishes” the reputation of the United States around the world.
The archbishop made the comments during a Jan. 18 interview with the BBC, speaking to broadcaster Edward Stourton. As the archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, Broglio oversees clergy and sacraments for the U.S. armed forces.
Asked about the Trump administration’s apparent willingness to use military force to take Greenland if diplomacy fails, Broglio said he “cannot see any circumstance” where doing so would, as Stourton put it, “fulfill the criteria of a just law.”
“Greenland is a territory of Denmark,” the prelate said. “Denmark is an ally. It’s part of NATO. It does not seem really reasonable that the United States would attack and occupy a friendly nation.”
“It’d be one thing if the people of Greenland wanted to be annexed,” the archbishop pointed out. “But taking it by force when we already have treaties there that allow for a military installation in Greenland — it doesn’t seem acceptable to invade a friendly nation.”
Military force in such a scenario would “tarnish” the image of the U.S., Broglio said, because “traditionally, we’ve responded to situations of oppression” instead of engaging in proactive invasion.
The archbishop acknowledged that soldiers who are “put in a situation where they’re being ordered to do something that is morally questionable” are within their rights of conscience to disobey such a directive.
“But that’s perhaps putting that individual in an untenable situation, and that’s my concern,” he said.
A sparsely populated landmass with little Church presence, most of the Catholic population in Greenland is concentrated in a single parish, Christ the King Church in Nuuk. That parish falls under the administration of the Diocese of Copenhagen, located approximately 2,000 miles east of Nuuk.
U.S. plans to annex the landmass have drawn international backlash and rebuke from leaders in Europe and elsewhere. Catholics in the region have reportedly expressed opposition to Greenland falling under American control.
Asked if he believes he can “make a real difference” in the international dispute by “laying down red lines,” Broglio acknowledged that it’s unknown “whether the powers that be will listen to those admonitions.”
But “I think it is my duty to speak appropriately as I’m able,” he said.
