Even though Father Alan Rees had been depressed for at least 12 years, and had attempted suicide by suffocation in 2004, the buzz around Belmont Abbey in Herefordshire, Wales, is that the monk killed himself by jumping off a second-floor balcony while reading The Da Vinci Code because the book had made him question his religious beliefs.

The highly respected Father Alan, 64, was the composer of music written especially for Pope John Paul II's only visit to Wales, in 1982.

Dr. Ken Godbert, the physician who had prescribed anti-depressant drugs for Father Alan, told the coroner: "There were difficulties because of his state of isolation and loneliness and he questioned his beliefs."

The Abbot of the Belmont monastery, Paul Stonham, said of Father Alan: "He went through hell, convinced God had abandoned him, that his life was worth nothing, that he no longer deserved to live. Nothing could convince him otherwise. Ultimately, he took the only way out a troubled mind could think of, and nothing or no one could stop him."

Source: icWales.co.uk

Alan Rees | Paul Stonham | Ken Godbert | Pope John Paul II
Belmont Abbey | Herefordshire, Wales | Catholic | Dan Brown | Da Vinci Code