An unsettling calm has returned along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir following the announcement of a truce on May 10 between India and Pakistan. The agreement, which called for an “immediate and full cessation of hostilities,” came after a week of heavy cross-border shelling that left at least 16 civilians dead and thousands homeless. Kashmir is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan. After they have fought two full-fledged wars over it, both control parts of it. Several skirmishes have also erupted, including the conflict that has just ended. India usually blames Pakistan for backing separatist campaigns to liberate the area from India. Pakistan has always refuted this accusation. Deaths attributed to the unrest in the last three decades total at least 100,000. Though the guns have again fallen silent, people living in the border towns of Uri, Kupwara, Rajouri, and Poonch said the damage — both mental and physical — will take much longer to fix. Many communities still have funeral pyres smoldering, homes are in rubble, and children are traumatized.
Consistory to reflect on Church’s mission to communicate God’s love
In a letter to the Cardinals ahead of a late-June Consistory, Pope Leo XIV calls for a deeper reflection on the themes of “Evangelii gaudium,”
