Vatican’s top diplomat visits Denmark amid rising Greenland tensions, urging dialogue, unity, and faith-driven diplomacy.
Newsroom (26/01/2026 Gaudium Press ) During his visit to Denmark to commemorate the 1,200th anniversary of the mission of Saint Ansgar, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin held a private meeting on Monday with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen at Eigtveds Pakhus, the historic seat of the Kingdom of Denmark’s diplomacy.
The encounter unfolded against a backdrop of renewed international tension over the sovereignty of Greenland, an autonomous territory within Denmark, which has become the focus of geopolitical debate following recent remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump. The timing of the meeting—combining faith, diplomacy, and global politics—gave Cardinal Parolin’s statements a particular resonance.
Last week in Rome, while speaking to journalists at the Domus Mariae Church after celebrating Mass, the Vatican’s top diplomat stressed that “solutions of force cannot be used” and called for “a return to the spirit of multilateralism that characterized the period after the Second World War and that is being lost.” His call for restraint and renewed multilateral engagement seemed directed not only at current global crises but at the fragile equilibrium emerging in the Arctic region.
A Diplomatic Mission Rooted in Faith
Cardinal Parolin’s trip to Copenhagen, which began on Saturday, January 24, forms part of a broader Vatican delegation marking the legacy of Saint Ansgar—the ninth-century Benedictine monk known as the “Apostle of the North.” Appointed by Emperor Louis the Pious, Ansgar pioneered Christian missions in Denmark and Sweden before becoming the first Archbishop of Hamburg and later of Bremen, where he died in 865.
According to the Vatican Press Office, Pope Leo XIV tasked Cardinal Parolin with representing the Holy See at the anniversary events, highlighting the missionary’s enduring message of courage, service, and faithfulness in adversity. Danish authorities organized a wide-ranging national program including liturgies, pilgrimages, ecumenical dialogues, and cultural gatherings in tribute to the saint’s legacy.
The visit opened with ecumenical vespers at Copenhagen’s Lutheran cathedral, Vor Frue Domkirke. Addressing both Catholic and Lutheran participants, Parolin underscored the need for a “perspective of concrete service and shared responsibility,” reminding those present that “Christian witness cannot remain abstract or be limited to words.” He warned against indifference in the face of human suffering and invoked the Apostle Paul’s teaching on unity as a “living communion in diversity.”
Homily of Hope and Renewal
On Sunday, Cardinal Parolin presided over Mass at Copenhagen Cathedral as papal legate, emphasizing that Saint Ansgar’s mission was “founded not on strategies or success, but on fidelity to Jesus.” He described the monk’s perseverance amid hardship as a model for the Church today, confronting what he called “new forms of slavery—economic, cultural, and spiritual—and a world marked by exclusion and indifference.”
Tracing the saint’s journey from the monasteries of Corbie and Corvey to his ventures among the Danes, Parolin recalled that Ansgar’s apparent failures never deterred him. “Success was not what he sought,” the cardinal said. “The Church grows not primarily in numbers, but in men and women who live lives of fidelity, perseverance, and love.”
Calling for a “renewed evangelizing boldness,” Parolin urged believers to “safeguard hope where history seems weary,” framing hope not as naïveté but as “trust in God’s continuous action, even in the most fragile situations.”
A Message to the World—and to Copenhagen
Amid the political undercurrents surrounding Greenland’s sovereignty, the Vatican’s message of dialogue and peace appeared aimed at fostering moral reflection on governance and stewardship. By meeting Foreign Minister Rasmussen and King Frederik X, Parolin reaffirmed the Holy See’s longstanding position that lasting solutions must emerge from cooperation and mutual respect, not coercion.
He concluded his remarks by emphasizing that Denmark remains “indelibly marked by its Christian heritage,” noting that its Catholic and Lutheran communities “contribute through service, solidarity, and respect for human dignity.”
Before his return to Rome, Cardinal Parolin visited the Monastery of Sankt Josefs Karmel in Hillerød and met with the Benedictine nuns of Vor Frue Kloster in Birkerød—quiet gestures of unity reflecting the pastoral dimension of his mission.
As Greenland increasingly captures the world’s attention, the Vatican’s intervention signals yet again that even in the realm of geopolitics, faith can still serve as a voice of conscience, urging patience, compassion, and diplomacy over division.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from ACI Prensa
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