Bell rings out from Catholic cathedral in Mosul for the first time since ISIS occupation

CNA Newsroom, Nov 15, 2022 / 08:25 am

A church bell that was kept hidden by a Muslim family during the Islamic State’s occupation of Mosul rang out above St. Paul’s Chaldean Catholic Cathedral on Sunday for the first time in eight years.

Christians from across Iraq’s Nineveh Plain came to the cathedral to participate in the bell-ringing ceremony and Divine Liturgy on Nov. 13.

Archbishop Najeeb Michaeel, OP, the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul and Akra, led a procession to the grotto of the Virgin Mary, the patroness of Mosul, in the church courtyard before ceremoniously ringing the bell.