STILLWATER, MN, May 23, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A 19-year-old college student committed suicide just two weeks after making her first pornographic video.
Alyssa Funke, who starred in her first porn film earlier this year for a website called CastingCouch-X, used a shotgun to kill herself on April 16.
It is widely thought she killed herself after former classmates at her high school in Stillwater, Minnesota, taunted her through Twitter and Facebook. Police say their investigation, which is still ongoing, has not yet found any criminal harassment.
Funke's parents say that she suffered from periodic depression. Local media report that the young lady's father has a record for swindling and theft, and her mother dealt drugs with a boyfriend. Funke's mother also neglected the family's younger siblings. Eventually, Funke moved in with her grandmother as a young teenager, though she still struggled with money.
Former pornstars told LifeSiteNews that troubled childhoods and deep depression –…More

Photo ~ Religious leaders were among those who greeted Pope Francis on his arrival
Pope Francis has arrived in Jordan at the start of a three-day visit to the Middle East which will also take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
He is due to be welcomed by King Abdullah II. He will celebrate Mass in a stadium in Amman before later meeting Syrian refugees.
The official purpose of the visit is to improve ties with the Orthodox Church. But correspondents say many will expect Pope Francis to use his influence to try to ease tensions in the region.

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered Monday near the reputed scene of Jesus’s last supper in Jerusalem demanding that Israel keep sovereignty over the site where Pope Francis will celebrate mass.
The pope will visit the Holy Land from May 24-26 and before returning to Rome is set to hold a mass in the site known as the Upper Room or Cenacle, on Mount Zion near the walls of the Old City.
Sovereignty over the Cenacle, which was renovated by Franciscans in the 14th century before the group was forced out, is a highly sensitive issue.
It is currently part of negotiations between Israel and the Vatican which hopes to recover the site.
Tradition says it is where Jesus had his last supper with the disciples, before his arrest and crucifixion.
It is also where the Gospels say the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost, 50 days after Easter.
Ultra-Orthodox protesters are planning another demonstration there on May 22 — just three days before the pope is due to arrive in Jerusalem.
Pope Francis’s …More

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a report on alcohol consumption around the world, revealing which are the world’s heaviest drinking nations.
According to the Global status report on alcohol and health 2014, Belarus tops the list as the heaviest drinkers, with Belarusians consuming an average of 17.5 litres of pure alcohol per year.
Eastern Europe and Russia make up the top of the chart, with the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia not even making the top ten. The UK was 17th on the list, joint with Slovenia, with the population consuming an average 11.6 litres of alcohol, a decline of 12% since 2005.
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World’s heaviest drinking countries 2014
Belarus – 17.5 litres
Republic of Moldova – 16.8 litres
Lithuania – 15.4 litres Russian Federation – 15.1 litres Romania – 14.4 litres Ukraine – 13.9 litres Andorra – 13.8 litres Hungary – 13.3 litres Czech Republic and Slovakia – 13 litres Portugal – 12.9 litres

In the run-up to the synod on the family, one of the most striking elements has been the questionnaire distributed “for the purpose of obtaining concrete and real data on the theme of the synod”
But in the meantime, it can be useful to skim the results of a scientific survey carried out in 40 countries of the five continents by the most accredited center of research on religion, the Washington-based
Pew Research Center.
vassallomalta.wordpress.com/…/on-homosexualit…
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For example, here are the percentages of persons who in each of the following countries consider abortion morally unacceptable:
Philippines 93 percent
Ghana 92 Indonesia 89 Uganda 88 El Salvador 85 Pakistan 85 Bolivia 83 Kenya 82 Nigeria 80 Brazil 79 Malaysia 79 Tunisia 77 Venezuela 77 Chile 64 Mexico 63 Egypt 62 South Africa 61 India 58 South Korea 58 Argentina 56 Lebanon 56 Greece 54 Palestinian Territories 54 Jordan 53 Senegal 52 Turkey 52 United States 49 Poland 47 Russia 44 Italy 41 …More

Photo ~ Ordinations in St. Peter's Basilica on May 11, 2014. Credit: Lauren Cater / CNA.
Vatican City, May 11, 2014 / 06:38 am (CNA) - In his homily at an ordination mass this morning, Pope Francis urged those becoming priests to follow Christ’s example of mercy in the sacrament of confession.
“Never grow tired of being merciful! Please! You have the capacity to forgive as did the Lord, who did not come to condemn, but to forgive! Have mercy, a lot!” he urged the 13 men being ordained to the priesthood in St. Peter’s Basilica on May 11.
“If you come to have concerns about being too much of a ‘forgiver,’ think of that saintly priest...who went before the tabernacle and said, ‘Lord, forgive me if I have forgiven too much. But you have given me the worst example!’”
As Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis ordained 13 men to the priesthood, 11 from the diocesan seminary in Rome and two missionaries from Pakistan and Vietnam.
www.catholicnewsagency.com/…/pope-to-newly-o…

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Using what he acknowledged was unusually "blunt" language, the head of the Vatican's doctrinal office rebuked officers of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for honoring a Catholic theologian whose work was judged "seriously inadequate" and for promoting futuristic ideas he described as "opposed to Christian revelation."
Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made the remarks April 30 in an address to the presidency of the LCWR, a Maryland-based umbrella group that claims about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women's communities as members, representing about 80 percent of the country's 57,000 women religious.
At the April 30 meeting with LCWR officials, Cardinal Muller voiced "increasing concern" about the LCWR's promotion of the "concept of conscious evolution" in various publications and in the "directional statements" of some member congregations.
Conscious evolution is a set of ideas developed in the writings of …More

This news item is also covered in today's video news from Lucia.
The law, which makes it easier for licensed gun owners to carry firearms into churches, bars, restaurants, and airports, is set to take effect July 1.
Georgia has always banned licensed weapons in churches, but the new legislation drops the penalty to a $100 fine and the legal charge to a misdemeanor. It was opposed by the Georgia Catholic Conference, the National Catholic Reporter noted.
"The last thing we need is more firearms in public places, especially in those places frequented by children and the vulnerable," Gregory wrote.
In his column, Gregory said that "churches and other places of worship are intended to be sanctuaries – holy sites where people come to pray and to worship God."
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com www.newsmax.com/…/568789

Dobson tears into Obama: 'Come and get me'
WASHINGTON – James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and Family Talk Radio, a harsh critic of President Obama and an opponent in court, on Thursday described him as the “abortion president” during an address at the National Day of Prayer.
Dobson, whose organization recently won a court fight against Obama over a mandate in Obamacare that would have required his ministry to pay for abortion pills, has not been shy about challenging the president on his abortion agenda.
At one point during the fight over the imposition of the abortion mandate, he said to the president: “Come and get me. I will not yield to your wicked regulations.”
The fact that Obama is more supportive of abortion than any other chief executive in the U.S. was touted by none other than Planned Parenthood.
In a report on his 2013 keynote address to a gala by Planned Parenthood, the largest player in the nation’s abortion industry, Cecile Richards, chief of the organization …More

Julio Sabetta (the husband of Jacquelina Lisbona, who started the controversy with his FaceBook posting) comments to CNN’s Argentine desk:
“She (Jacquelina) spoke with the Pope, and he said she was absolved of all sins and she could go and get the Holy Communion because she was not doing anything wrong,” Sabetta told Channel 3 Rosario, a CNN affiliate.
That sounds like a formal absolution, which is unlikely the pontiff gave over the phone.
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