Two Mosul churches damaged during the ISIS occupation of Iraq were officially reopened in a ceremony on Monday. Source: CNA.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, government officials, and representatives of the organisations that supported the reconstruction of the two churches – Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, known as Al-Tahera Church, and Our Lady of the Hour Church within Mosul’s Dominican Monastery.
Speaking inside the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Mr al-Sudani declared: “This church rises from the rubble to represent the house where the Lord gathers people’s hearts without division or hostility, in a coexistence as old as Iraq itself.”
He emphasised that the reopening is a return to “the spirit of Mosul and the brotherhood that unites its people.”
Archbishop Benedictus Younan Hanno, the Syriac Catholic Bishop of Mosul, urged the prime minister to extend the same care shown to Iraqi heritage toward “rebuilding the Christian people”.
He stressed: “The people of Nineveh need your care and attention, and someone to listen to their cries, especially your sons and daughters from the Christian community.”
Archbishop Hanno noted that about 80 per cent of Iraq’s Christians “suffer violations and denial of their rights,” with many forced into exile.
Following the speeches, Archbishop Hanno, Mr al-Sudani and other participants rang the church bell and planted an olive tree in its courtyard as a symbol of peace. The prime minister then moved on to the Dominican Monastery to reopen the Church of Our Lady of the Hour.
The churches, together with the Great al-Nuri Mosque and its famous leaning minaret, all located in Mosul’s Old City, suffered extensive destruction during the occupation of the city by the terrorist group ISIS (2014–2017).
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Iraqi prime minister reopens two historic Catholic churches in Mosul (By Georgena Habbaba, CNA)
