Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services spoke in a Jan. 18 interview with the BBC about the morality of a possible U.S. military operation to take Greenland.
Just days earlier, as CatholicVote reported, White Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that President Donald Trump and his team are considering various options in working to acquire Greenland from Denmark. She added that “utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal.”
BBC Presenter Edward Stourton mentioned in the interview that Trump, speaking about his foreign policy, recently told The New York Times that he doesn’t need international law and that he has his “own morality,” as a constraint to his power.
Trump also told the Times, “I’m not looking to hurt people.” When asked whether his administration needed to follow international law, he said “I do,” but added that it depends on the definition of what international law is.
Commenting on this “own morality” quote, Archbishop Broglio said, “I must say I’m a little bit concerned because, I mean, we do have international law, and we do have obviously moral principles that should guide all of us, and perhaps some of the rhetoric is more concerning than some of the actions, although even some of the actions have left room for concern, I believe.”
Stourton later asked whether Archbishop Broglio could “conceive of any circumstances in which an American military operation to take Greenland fulfill the criteria of a just war.”
Archbishop Broglio replied, “I cannot see any circumstances that it would. Greenland is a territory of Denmark — Denmark is an ally, it’s part of NATO, it does not seem really reasonable that we would, that the United States would attack and occupy a friendly nation.”
“You know, it’d be one thing if the people of Greenland wanted to be annexed,” he added. “That would be one situation, but taking it by force, when we already have treaties there that allow for military installation in Greenland, it doesn’t seem necessary, it doesn’t seem acceptable to invade a friendly nation.”
Stourton asked Archbishop Broglio about his reaction to the White House’s statement that it has not ruled out military force and that the administration employs rhetoric that “clearly seems designed to intimidate.”
Archbishop Broglio answered, “I think it tarnishes the image of the United States in our world, because traditionally, we’ve responded to situations of oppression, or situations of – that’s not to say those weren’t sometimes in national interest, but this is certainly very difficult to justify.”
The archbishop, who recently concluded a three-year term as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, also commented on soldiers’ conscience rights.
Stourton reflected on how difficult it would be to be a soldier who refuses to comply with an order involving a military operation in Greenland and asked about the archbishop’s perspective on that situation.
“I am obviously worried because they could be put in a situation where they’re being ordered to do something which is morally questionable,” Archbishop Broglio said, “and, it would be very difficult for a soldier or marine or a sailor to, by himself, to disobey an order such as that, but strictly speaking, he or she would be within the realm of their own conscience, it would be morally acceptable to disobey that order, but that’s perhaps putting that individual in an untenable situation, and that’s my concern.”