Belmont abbot mourns man's best friend

BY LUKE COPPEN
A BENEDICTINE abbot has spoken for the first time of his feelings after the death of his closest companion — a dog named Bernardo.
In a moving tribute, the Abbot of Belmont, Fr Paul Stonham, said he felt as though he "had lost everything" when the golden-haired sheepdog died shortly before its 13th birthday.
The monk became Bernardo's owner in 1981, at the start of a 20-year stint as a missionary in Peru.
"When he died it was as though I had lost everything and, in a sense, there all alone in the Peruvian bush, I had, for— apart from God — he was everything to me, my faithful and beloved companion," Fr Stonham recalled.
"That parting was so painful that I decided never to have another dog. The bond is too strong, the love too deep, the separation too heartbreaking."
The dog's headstone was later blessed by the local archbishop, who lead a service of thanksgiving for the animal's life and friendship.
Writing in the The Ark, the Journal of the Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare, Fr Stonham said that just 10 days after Bernardo's death he was presented with two mongrel puppies. He adopted them and began to take them to daily Mass and the Office in his monastery chapel. "Dogs are never happier than when their owners are at prayer," Fr Stonham explained.
The monk said he was devastated when he had to leave the dogs — and Peru — in December 2000 to become the Abbot of Belmont "It broke my heart," he said. Fr Stonham is not the only English Church leader to lose a canine companion. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O' Connor's golden retriever, Jason, died shortly after the former Bishop of Arundel and Brighton was appointed Archbishop of Westminster in March 2000.