The idea of buying territory is foreign to our U.S. way of thinking in the 21st century…..foreign, except for Donald J. Trump, who suddenly stunned the world by proposing that the U.S. should buy Greenland (currently a possession of Denmark). Love him or hate him, we are all used to the sudden statements coming from the mouth of Mr. Trump. Obviously those outbursts haven’t hurt him, since he was inaugurated (for the second time) as President of the United States.
But is it really such a crazy idea? Are there any precedents for this?
Over the course of time, the United States has acquired territory through purchase, conflict, and compromise.
Some of the territories the U.S. has purchased include:
Louisiana (1803): Purchased from France for $15 million (doubling the size of the U.S.)
Florida (1819): Purchased from Spain (in the land deal of the century, Spain received no compensation…United States merely agreed to assume liability for $5 million in damage done by American citizens who had rebelled against Spain.)
Gadsden Purchase (1853): United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico.
Alaska (1867): the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire for a sum of $7.2 million. It was dubbed “Seward’s Folly” at the time, after the Secretary of State who put the deal together. The purchase was controversial because many Americans thought the land was worthless and uninhabitable.
U.S. Virgin Islands (1917): Purchased from Denmark for $25 million (yes, the same Denmark that now owns Greenland).
In addition, The U.S. has also acquired territory through conflict, for example Texas (1845), Hawaii (1898) and Guam (1898).
So, perhaps this suggestion is not quite as crazy as it sounds. Greenland is actually closer to the U.S. than Denmark and the rest of Europe, which makes it a possible partner in national defense (there is already a U.S. Air Force Base on Greenland) but perhaps equally important is the possible mineral wealth (especially rare earth metals) underneath the permafrost that covers much of Greenland. The battle over these world-wide promises to increase every year. And, it looks like the U.S. has done business with Denmark in the past…the U.S. Virgin Islands being an example.
So, what has all this to do with Catholic travel?
Well, it has brought public interest in Greenland, a territory of Denmark, which we suspect many people are not very well familiar. Yes, Greenland is an island (the largest in the world), with a surface area of 836,330 square miles (2,166,086 square kilometers), making it dwarf the country of France (551,695 square kilometers or 213,011 square miles) or the State of Texas (268,597 square miles).
Some 75% of Greenland is covered in ice, which would account for its low population density. The entire population of Greenland was 56,865 in 2023, according to World Bank records.
The whole island is under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Despite its geographic size, there is only one Catholic church on the island…..you can read about it here: The Church of Christ the King in the capitol city of Nuuk.