THE monks at Belmont Abbey plan to sell their monastery in the wilds of Peru.

Built more than 15 years ago for just £45,000 the money will go to provide a bigger and better one near Lima.

Father Simon McGurk, recently parish priest at St Francis Xavier, Hereford is in charge of the new venture aiming to see the new monastery complete by the end of 2003.

The Belmont community started their Peru project in 1981 with Fathers Luke Waring, David Bird and Paul Stonham.

They looked after a large and barren rural parish of more than 100,000 people and, in 1984, Father Mark Jabale, a former Abbot at Belmont and now a Bishop in Swansea, arrived to buy land and build the monastery.

Catholic parishes in Hereford and children in county schools helped raise money.

Father Paul, now Abbot at Belmont, took over in 1986 and work in the rural parish was cut.

In Peru women had always been able to choose to become nuns but there were no facilities for men to enter monastic life. The Belmont Benedictine order wanted to put this right and over the years numbers at the new monastery has grown.

But from the start life proved difficult.

There has been no electricity, no clean running water and little rain so farming was not viable.

Simple

According to the rule of St Benedict, monks must live by their own work but there were few opportunities.

Father Paul, now at Belmont , said it became obvious their days there were numbered.

It was too far from centres of study and had no work outlets such as hospitals, retreats and taking in guests.

The new monastery will be a simple, monastic building where the needs and desires of the young Peruvian community would be paramount.

Father Paul, after nearly 20 years in Peru, confesses to miss the life there 'terribly'.

He came home to Hereford to cast his vote for a new Abbot of Belmont when Father Mark went to Swansea last year and found himself voted in.

Frightening

He has not been deterred by a frightening experience a year ago when he went back to 'clear his desk'.

Driving in desert country he , was held at gun point by bandits, ordered to strip, robbed of 1,200 dollars for the poor and all of his possessions.

"I was lying in the sand, in the dark and made an act of contrition and got ready for death. I asked God why he had brought me here to die,'' he told The Hereford Times.

But Father Paul has only good thoughts about the Peruvians and their country and would be delighted if his next set of monastic orders meant him reporting back there for duty.