Our Sisters in India and Pakistan, together with numerous religious men and women present in both countries, are launching an appeal:
The progressive increase in violence between the two countries forces us to think of an imminent future marked by the use of arms.
Dear Sisters and friends, we humbly invite you all to intensify your prayers together with us, through Eucharistic Adoration and the Rosary for peace and harmony between India and Pakistan.
And for so many other countries where war is already raging.
May the peace of the risen Lord reign among us! Amen! With a grateful heart, Sr. Sonia, SdC.’
The religious men and women present in both countries, including through inter-religious forums, are putting pressure on the leaders of Pakistan and India to encourage dialogue and pacification.
The Pakistani Kashmir region, at the ecclesial level, is a portion of the territory of the Archdiocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi. There are two missions of the Sisters of Charity in the diocese:
- in Islamabad at the Nunciature
- in Rawalpindi at the Hospice which welcomes chronically ill Christians and Muslims who have no one to care for them.
In 1947, the first war broke out over Kashmir, a vast historical and geographical region in the Himalayas located in the north of the Indian subcontinent between India and Pakistan, over which both countries claim sovereignty.
India, with a Hindu majority, and Pakistan, with a Muslim majority, were formed at the end of British colonial rule in 1947. While India has claimed Kashmir since the region’s Hindu ruler joined New Delhi, Pakistan has always considered the popular support of the Muslim majority in the region as the basis for its claim. Fierce armed clashes over control of the region broke out in 1965. Further clashes occurred in 1971, when the state of Bangladesh was created. In the meantime, both countries have acquired nuclear weapons.
