Mosul’s Church Square decorated with two symbolic crosses to welcome Pope Francis

Two hand-made crosses are on display in Mosul’s Church Square as the city awaits the visit of Pope Francis on Sunday.

One is made out of burnt chairs from churches that ISIS destroyed and the other has Mosul’s landmarks engraved on it.

“The cross was built from burnt chairs from churches in the Nineveh Plain, we kept the wood in the storage and it took one day to assemble, which was done last Thursday,” said Faisal Jeber, an Iraqi geologist who is trying to restore historical sites damaged by ISIS in the northern city.

The idea came after a discussion with Chaldean Father Thabet Habib Youssef, pastor of the Church of St Adday in the Christian town of Karamles, Mr Jeber told The National.

He is the founder of Gilgamesh centre for antiquities and heritage protection in 2015, which was the first to enter and assess damaged Christian sites in Nineveh.

The second cross was created by Omar Qais, a sculpture from Mosul.

“We present this status as a gift by the name of the people of Mosul depicting peaceful coexistence,” Mr Qais said in a video on Twitter.

“It’s a moment of glory, we are happy to receive the Pope here in Mosul,” he said.

A sculpture of a white dove sits on top of the cross while two hands, representing Mosul’s men and women, hold the Christian symbol.

During ISIS's occupation of the city, Mr Qais was building statues in the basement of his home. Since the defeat of ISIS in 2017, his artwork has filled public squares and art galleries.

Omar Qais, an Iraqi sculpture, stands in front of the cross he made that is on the platform where Pope Francis will pray on Sunday, March, 7, 2021, in Mosul. Courtesy Ali Al Baroodi.

Father Olivier Poquillon, a French Dominican and head of Al Saa'a Church in the heart of Mosul's Old City, told the The National that atmosphere in the square was vibrant and lively as the public awaited the Pope's arrival.
"On the podium, we have one cross which is dark made from wood and the other one is a bright cross of glory signaling that life is stronger than death," Father Olivier said.

"It has been made by Christian and Muslim groups all together,” he said

Pope Francis is set to hold a prayer for victims of ISIS and war at Al Tahera Church in the northern city’s Church Square, which is surrounded by several places of worship used by Iraq’s different Christian denominations.

Syriac Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Chaldean Catholic churches can be found in and around the small square that is locked in by low-rise houses in Mosul’s Old City.

Before the US-led war that topped Saddam Hussein in 2003, Mosul was Iraq’s second-largest city, known for its diversity, religious conservatism and nationalism.

For three years, from 2014 to 2017, ISIS overran Mosul, desecrating many of its buildings including its churches and used the buildings to run its administration, including as a jail and a court.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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