Catholic Archbishop Says It May Be ‘Morally Acceptable’ for U.S. Troops to Disobey Orders

There is a line between providing pastoral care to the troops and meddling in military affairs and national security. The archbishop responsible for all U.S. Catholic chaplains in the military has come close to, if not crossed, that line.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio gave an interview to the BBC on a show called Sunday, and said that any U.S. troops who refuse to participate in a hypothetical (at this point) attack on Greenland would then be “in a situation where they’re being ordered to do something that’s morally questionable.”

Needless to say, he is making the clapping seals in the leftist media quite happy.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio said it “would be morally acceptable” for U.S. troops to disobey orders that violate their conscience, adding that he is “worried” about the military personnel in his pastoral care. https://t.co/eQ4kbfX7oB pic.twitter.com/3R8RaSTVxY
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 20, 2026

In the long history of the Catholic chaplains and the U.S. military, I’m sure there have been times when the military mission and Catholic doctrine conflicted. But I can’t remember a time when a high-level Catholic cleric took such a strong position against a (hypothetical) specific mission like this, and went as far as to discuss insubordination. When did the church decide that troops should be the ones to decide on their deployments?

We’ve seen massive wars with massive and horrific casualties, from two World Wars to Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan, where Catholic chaplains provided much-needed spiritual and religious support to the men and women throughout the services. Typically, chaplains have not interjected themselves into determining justification for the mission.

It’s a cliché, but all war really is bad. I’ve never met anyone who’s been through it who feels it’s desirable or preferable in any context. Catholic clergy have always known this and thoughtfully did not make public judgments on the leaders of the conflicts or the troops who participated. They knew that the last thing a Catholic private in the army needed was to be judged negatively by his priest for performing his military duties.

Keep in mind, this is all real-world stuff that actually happened, not conjecture over hypothetical military missions. This tells me the church knows how to stay in its lane if it wants.

Broglio’s insertion of himself and the Catholic Church into the geopolitical tensions between the United States and other countries over Greenland is unprecedented and uncalled for.

The cleric said he “could not see any circumstances” in which the U.S. annexation of Greenland with the use of the military is justifiable. That’s debatable, but the archbishop is entitled to his opinion because, unlike other countries his church (and my church) has yet to condemn, this one is free.

But then Broglio went one unconscionable step further, saying that for American troops, it could be “morally acceptable to disobey” official orders to participate in an attack.

Really?

Broglio’s official title is the Archbishop of the Archdiocese for the U.S. Military, which is the Catholic church’s function that oversees its chaplains in every branch of the military. For him to make the statement he made was no accident or spontaneous comment. At the very least, it was sanctioned by his higher-ups. Someone in his position does not freelance.

In saying what he said, Broglio undermined the chain of command in the military, and he appears to be actively campaigning against the Trump administration at a political level.

Anyone who is smart knows that the likelihood of the U.S. invading Greenland to annex it is highly remote. All you ever have to do with President Donald Trump is to give him time, and he’ll find a way to achieve his goals (or not) through peaceful means, in spite of all the bravado.

Because I think Broglio knows this, his comments are gratuitous. A case can easily be made for some arrangement where the U.S. controls and protects Greenland so that in the Western Hemisphere, America does not face the threat of Russian or Chinese ballistic missiles from this frozen island.

For those who say Trump may only want Greenland for the rare earth minerals, let’s assume you’re right. Did you know that right now, China controls most of the world’s rare earth minerals?

China holds a significant portion of global rare earth reserves, which is roughly about half of the world’s known rare earth deposits. As for mines, China produces about 60–70% of the world’s mined rare earth elements. These aren’t just ‘fun facts.’

Rare earths are critical to most of the products of modern life we rely on, including missile systems, nuclear warheads, satellites, and military aircraft. Connect the dots. If China is allowed to expand its control over the globe’s rare earth minerals, U.S. national security would be in a bad place.

I’d like to think Broglio hasn’t thought of that, and if he did, he’d change his mind. But the skeptic in me tells me that maybe he hasn’t thought of that, but either way, it wouldn’t matter to his position.

Again, spending an inordinate amount of time on a hypothetical and unlikely scenario, Broglio told the BBC, “It doesn’t seem acceptable to invade a friendly nation… Ya know, it would be one thing if the people of Greenland wanted to be annexed. That would be one situation. But taking it by force when we already have treaties that allow for a military installation in Greenland, it doesn’t seem acceptable to invade a friendly nation.”

According to reports, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Broglio to his current role in 2007.

Not that long ago, Broglio weighed in on another Department of War (DOW) matter that raised eyebrows. He issued a statement in December critical of Pentagon operations in the Gulf of America, where the U.S. has killed nearly 100 suspected “narco-terrorists” caught in the act of transporting illegal drugs by fast boat.

Out of curiosity, I looked to see if Broglio issued any similar statements about Barack Obama’s drone use during his eight years as president. I couldn’t find any.

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