As international tensions rise following U.S. actions and threats involving Venezuela, Greenland, and domestic troop deployments, the Catholic archbishop responsible for pastoral care of America’s military personnel has issued a stark moral warning: service members must not be compelled to violate their conscience.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, said it could be “morally acceptable” for members of the armed forces to refuse orders that violate fundamental moral principles, even while acknowledging the grave personal risks such refusal may carry.
Speaking to the BBC, Broglio questioned the legitimacy of potential U.S. military actions against Greenland, noting that “Greenland is a territory of Denmark,” and adding, “It does not seem really reasonable that the United States would attack and occupy a friendly nation,” according to reporting by The Washington Post.
As archbishop, Broglio oversees Catholic chaplains serving at U.S. military bases, Veterans Affairs hospitals, and diplomatic missions worldwide. Asked whether he was concerned for those under his pastoral care, he replied, “I am obviously worried because they could be put in a situation where they’re being ordered to do something which is morally questionable.”
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Broglio emphasized the severe burden placed on individual service members when moral concerns arise. “It would be very difficult for a soldier or a Marine or a sailor to by himself disobey an order,” he said. “But strictly speaking, he or she would be, within the realm of their own conscience, it would be morally acceptable to disobey that order,” adding that such situations could place personnel in an “untenable situation.”
The archbishop’s remarks come amid broader criticism from Catholic leaders regarding the Trump administration’s use or threat of military force. According to The Washington Post, Broglio has also condemned U.S. strikes on vessels accused of drug smuggling in international waters, where at least 115 people have been killed since September.
In a statement issued last month, Broglio said, “In the fight against drugs, the end never justifies the means,” stressing that “no one can ever be ordered to commit an immoral act, and even those suspected of committing a crime are entitled to due process under the law.” He further stated that “it would be an illegal and immoral order to kill deliberately survivors on a vessel who pose no immediate lethal threat to our armed forces,” underscoring the Church’s absolute prohibition against the intentional killing of noncombatants.
The archbishop grounded his comments in Catholic just war teaching. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the use of military force may only be justified under strict conditions, including that the harm inflicted by an aggressor be “lasting, grave and certain,” that all other means have failed, that there be serious prospects of success, and that the response not cause evils greater than those it seeks to eliminate.
Broglio’s concerns echo those raised by other senior Church leaders. Earlier this week, Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington, and Joseph Tobin of Newark issued a joint statement warning that developments in Venezuela, Ukraine, and Greenland have raised “basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace,” according to the Washington Post.
The warnings also align with repeated appeals from Pope Leo XIV, who has urged respect for national sovereignty and cautioned against what he described as a growing “zeal for war.” In a January meeting with diplomats at the Vatican, the pope criticized a global shift away from multilateralism toward the pursuit of peace through domination by arms, according to the same report.
While members of the U.S. military swear an oath to defend the Constitution and obey lawful orders, they are also bound not to follow “manifestly unlawful orders” under military law. As Broglio’s remarks make clear, Catholic teaching adds a further dimension: obedience cannot come at the cost of conscience or moral truth.
For Catholic service members, the archbishop’s message is both sobering and pastoral—affirming the Church’s unwavering defense of human dignity, even amid the harsh realities of modern warfare.
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