Erbil, Iraq, Mar 8, 2021 / 13:37 pm
A statue of the Virgin Mary that had been desecrated by the Islamic State was present at Pope Francis' Mass in Erbil on Sunday.
The statue was decapitated, and its hands cut off, in Karemlesh, a largely Christian town 18 miles east of Mosul, during the Islamic State's occupation of the villages in the Nineveh Plains from 2014 to 2017. It belonged to St. Adday church.
The statue has been partially restored. The original head was found in the rubble when the statue was recovered.
The head has been placed back onto the statue in a manner that still shows the damage from where it had been decapitated.