Cardinal Louis Raphaël I Sako, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, inaugurated the newly restored Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
The church was desecrated in 2014 when the Islamic State took control of the city.
“During IS rule, all marks of Christianity were removed, and not a single statue of the Virgin Mary or the crucifix of Jesus Christ survived,” Agence France-Presse reported. “But today, the small church has restored its former design, with its two red-painted domes carrying large crucifixes, and a renovated bell tower.”
