Porn link scuppers monks' website

A website run by Benedictine monks to promote their faith has been replaced by a link to a porn site.

Instead of details of the history of the Benedictine order at Subiaco, Rome, visitors to the website www.osb-subiaco.it are greeted with an empty page with two links: 'domain for sale', and 'enter'.

Clicking on 'enter' takes visitors off to Truecelebs.com, a porn website run by an Armenian company that claims to feature exotic images of a number of stars, including Britney Spears.

Father Bernardo Marini told Italian news agency ANSA that the discovery that "their" website had been replaced by a porn site had been a "disagreeable surprise above all others".

He said that the order paid a Californian company $35 a year for the domain. But this year the payment was not accepted, after Father Marini tried to pay in cash via registered mail.

He explained that he did not have a credit card to pay the renewal fee, or the bank account facilities required to send a bank order.

When he complained about the selling-on, the Californian firm simply referred him to the postal service which he says has not yet given him a reply.

However, despite losing their old home, the monks have found a new site on the web, which can be found here.