GREENLAND - Catholics in Greenland: A small church of migrants

Nuuk (Agenzia Fides) - Under your feet, mineral-rich soil covered by a thick layer of white snow; above your head, the enchanted sky distorted by the Northern Lights. Bright and long nights, days when the sunlight lasts only a few hours. Greenland is a land of contrasts, starting with its name: literally it means "green land", but in the moors covered with ice and snow near the Arctic Circle, the meadows are only visible for a few weeks and only in certain areas. Yet even here, in the midst of the ice, the seeds of the Gospel have flourished for centuries, surviving the storms and harsh winters of history.

According to the latest figures, Greenland has just over 57,000 inhabitants in an area of 2,166,000 square kilometers (including the coastal islands). With just 0.027 inhabitants per square kilometer, it is the most sparsely populated area on Earth.

The majority of the inhabitants belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church Communion, which is subordinate to the Danish Church (Den Danske Folkekirke), which established a bishopric in Greenland in 1993. From 1995 to 2020, the Lutheran Diocese of Greenland was led by Sofie Petersen, a member of the indigenous Inuit ethnic group who was the second woman to hold the episcopal office in the Danish Church. Currently, the Lutheran community is led by another woman, Paneeraq Siegstad Munk.

Currently, the percentage of Catholics on the island is less than one percent of the population: around 300 people gather weekly for the Eucharist in the church thanks to the Conventual Franciscan friars. A mass in English is celebrated in the chapel every Sunday, and there is a mass in Danish on the first Sunday of the month.

On the entire island, which is the largest dependent territory in the world and the fourth largest administrative subdivision on the planet after Sakha, Western Australia and Krasnoyarsk Territory, there is only one parish, the Christ the King Parish in the capital Nuuk, which is under the Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen.

The small group of Catholics in Greenland consists mainly not of the indigenous population (Inuit or Danes), but of migrants from the Philippines or Vietnam, but also from other countries in Europe or Asia. They all meet after mass to enjoy coffee, tea and Asian food with the priest.

It is not known with certainty when the preaching of the Gospel began on the island. All that is certain is that the first Christian communities settled in the Middle Ages, probably from northern European areas that were invaded by the Vikings. In the 12th century, a diocese, the Diocese of Garðar, was established in Greenland, but it was short-lived due to the so-called "Little Ice Age". Extreme temperatures decimated the population, and it was not until the 18th century that Protestant congregations from various northern European countries returned to the island.

The first Catholics did not appear again until the last century. The parish in Nuuk was established in 1958, but several years earlier, at the height of the Cold War, it was the Americans who brought Catholicism back to the island. In 1953, the United States of America bought a piece of land from the Danish government to build an air base, forcing the Inuit people living there to move 110 kilometers further north, where the village of Qaanaaq is today.

Despite the acquisition of the territory, Greenland's sovereign rights in the US-operated military zone are maintained, so that the US must pay a "rent" for the "temporary transfer of sovereignty" of USD 300 million annually for the use of the base. The base has several hundred military personnel (235 at the last count), among whom are several Catholics.

In addition, there are Catholics who came to Greenland as part of the migration flows of Filipinos, Vietnamese and other ethnic groups from the Eurasian continent that began at the end of the last century. In addition to the priests of the Diocese of Copenhagen, their pastoral care is also the responsibility of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. The parish priest of the Church of Christ the King in Nuuk is one of these Franciscan friars. In cooperation with the US Military Ordinariate, the mission also takes care of the pastoral care of the Catholics stationed at the US military base.

Before the Franciscans, the parish of Nuuk was entrusted to the priests of the Institute of the Incarnate Word. Before that, from 1980, the sisters of the Brotherhood of the Little Sisters of Jesus (Jesu Små Søstres Kommunitet / Jiisusip Najaarai) also worked in the Nuuk mission.

The Catholics do not only live in the city of Nuuk, and those who live outside the city are assured the comfort of the sacraments. In the small villages along the fjords or in the hinterland, where there are no places of worship, Holy Mass is celebrated in the homes, following the example of the first Christian communities, thanks to Danish priests who fly two hours to reach this other part of the parishioners (with whom they celebrate Mass every Sunday) who have found work here, on the edge of the planet, amid polar temperatures and snow. They come from countries often located in the tropics and continue their journey of faith, building on the island of Greenland, which is today at the center of great geopolitical conflicts, an ecclesial life that in many ways recalls what is narrated in the Acts of the Apostles. (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 8/3/2025)

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