Jehovah’s Witnesses are knocking on doors again.

They resumed door-to-door ministry on Sept. 1. The practice was suspended for more than two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dan Sideris told The Associated Press that he was nervous about going door-to-door again, but the experience turned out to be a good one for him.

“It all came back quite naturally because we don’t have a canned speech,” he said. “We try to engage with people about what’s in their heart, and what we say comes from our hearts.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses say they go door-to-door because are following the example of early Christians who found the practice a good way to reach people.

During the pandemic, they tried to reach people through letters and phone calls.

There are reportedly more than 1.2 million Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States.

CHIMAYO, N.M. —

The Chimayó village in northern New Mexico may be small, but its influence is anything but.

Every year during Holy Week, an average of 300,000 people make their way to El Sanctuario de Chimayó. The church is known to have healing properties and bring blessings to those that seek them.

"It was always just to get back to God," Nina Steffen, from Rio Rancho, said.

The annual tradition involves a pilgrimage to the small Catholic church from people around the world.

The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic and health concerns.

"It feels good. We need to see the people walking again. It was so sad for two whole years. It was really, like depressing not to see any of the people walking," Sylvia Montoya, an early trekker, said.

Montoya added the pilgrimage is an annual tradition for her family.

Despite driving this year, she said she made the walk several years ago, along with her mother, sister, and brother.

"My mom did it two years ago, and she did it from Galisteo," Montoya said. "Her and my sister and my brother."

A similar experience for Steffen.

She said she's been visiting the holy sanctuary for the past 22 years, joined by a group of local military moms.

"What really started it was our sons. I'm [with] a group of Blue Star Moms that have sons and daughters in the military," Steffen said. "We've just done it every year to ask God to protect our kids."

Steffen added she often spends her time praying for her son, Howard.

He's currently stationed in Jerusalem.

"I got my dirt from the hole. I got the holy water," Steffen said. "They talk about God's country. This is the ultimate God's country, right here. It's just so peaceful."

Some people, like Nicole Guzman, started their trek a day before Good Friday, in order to beat the crowds.

"This is the first time in like the past three years that I have done it. I would normally do it every year," she said.

Guzman started around 11 a.m. in Truchas, an almost three-hour walking journey to Chimayó.

Like many, she embarks on the journey for a special reason.

From praying for good health to fulfilling religious promises.

"A lot of people pray. A lot of people meditate. We met a lady back there that was meditating on her way this way carrying the cross," Guzman said. "This year, I kind of just did it for my family. I have my stepmother's mom, that was really sick. And in the process, we found out that she had passed, so this was for her more than anything."

Despite her personal loss, Guzman continued to walk on.

Not just for her own family, but for others in need of prayer and guidance.

"I know a lot of us carry a lot of burdens, and this gives us time to meditate and to think about it. At the end of the day, God has us and he's going to push us the rest of the way," Guzman said.

The pilgrimage dates back hundreds of years.

El Sanctuario de Chimayó is one of the most-visited holy sites in the United States. The sanctuary sees the most visitors during Holy Week but is open year-round.

Five people are dead after a shooting inside a church in the Arden area of Sacramento County, officials said.

A father shot and killed his three children inside the Church in Sacramento before shooting and killing himself during what Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said was a supervised visit. The fifth victim was a person supervising the visit.

Jones said the mother has a restraining order against the father. Sacramento County Sheriff's Office Spokesperson Rodney Grassmann said the three children killed were all girls. They were 9, 10 and 13 years old.

Grassmann also said people with restraining orders against them are not legally allowed to have a firearm.

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A church worker who was upstairs heard the shots around 5:07 p.m. and went outside to call dispatchers, the sheriff's office said.

Roads along Wyda and Ethan ways are closed while deputies are investigating.

Watch the full interview with a Sacramento County spokesperson by clicking here.

Nearby residents were originally asked by deputies to stay indoors.

Video from LiveCopter 3 showed first responders carrying a person through the church parking lot. They tried to resuscitate that person. After repeated attempts, they were not successful.

Jones said several agencies are involved in the investigation, including the FBI, which responded after initial reports were that it was an active shooter situation.

"When something big like this happens, everyone comes to help us out," Grassmann said. "Everybody has come out of their own jurisdiction to come to do what they can to help out not knowing how big this scene would be or how long it would go on."

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KCRA 3's Brittany Hope and Melanie Wingo contributed to this reporting.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

Five people are dead after a shooting inside a church in the Arden area of Sacramento County, officials said.

A father shot and killed his three children inside the Church in Sacramento before shooting and killing himself during what Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said was a supervised visit. The fifth victim was a person supervising the visit.

Jones said the mother has a restraining order against the father. Sacramento County Sheriff's Office Spokesperson Rodney Grassmann said the three children killed were all girls. They were 9, 10 and 13 years old.

Grassmann also said people with restraining orders against them are not legally allowed to have a firearm.

A church worker who was upstairs heard the shots around 5:07 p.m. and went outside to call dispatchers, the sheriff's office said.

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Nearby residents are being asked by deputies to stay indoors.

Video from sister station KCRA's LiveCopter 3 showed first responders carrying a person through the church parking lot. They tried to resuscitate that person. After repeated attempts, they were not successful.

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Jones said several agencies are involved in the investigation, including the FBI, which responded after initial reports were that it was an active shooter situation.

"When something big like this happens, everyone comes to help us out," Sacramento County Sheriff Spokesperson Rodney Grassmann said. "Everybody has come out of their own jurisdiction to come to do what they can to help out not knowing how big this scene would be or how long it would go on."

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Thousands of Arizona Catholics recently learned they may have been improperly baptized with the wrong words.

In Michigan, a separate but similar controversy has been ongoing since 2020. For years, a deacon at St. Anastasia Church in suburban Detroit used the words "we baptize" instead of "I baptize." The Vatican says that phrase makes the sacrament invalid.

The Detroit Archdiocese says it found about 200 baptisms were done properly, and 71 people so far have been baptized again. But 455 people haven't responded. One person who was affected was a priest, the Rev. Matthew Hood. He was quickly baptized and ordained again as a priest in 2020.

The situation has had many seriously upset, with one unidentified woman commenting during a talk who said, “Why do you think so many people are leaving the Catholic Church?” She said, “This is a great example why. This is just awful.”

Another man said, “What would Jesus do?” And then said, “I think he would be on a different side here and say by what you’re doing you have disrupted so many lives, so many people,”

Church members went to try and find videos of baptisms to see if family members had invalid sacraments.

Rev. Hood said, “We’re aware there are young people who no longer practice the faith. This problem has opened that up.” He said, “But for some individuals, it has been the opportunity to say I haven’t taken my faith seriously and this is an opportunity to do that, to realize something real is at play here.”

PHOENIX —

A Catholic priest has resigned after a church investigation found he performed invalid baptisms throughout most of his more than 20-year career, according to Bishop Thomas Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix.

Father Andres Arango, who performed thousands of baptisms, would say, "We baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." But Olmsted explained the words "We baptize" should have been "I baptize" instead.

"The issue with using 'We' is that it is not the community that baptizes a person, rather, it is Christ, and Him alone, who presides at all of the sacraments, and so it is Christ Jesus who baptizes," Olmsted wrote in a message to parishioners posted last month.

The error also means that because baptism is the first of the sacraments, some people will need to repeat other sacraments, according to the diocese webpage for frequently asked questions. CNN has reached out to the diocese for comment on other sacraments.

Arango resigned as pastor of the St. Gregory Parish in Phoenix as of Feb. 1.

"It saddens me to learn that I have performed invalid baptisms throughout my ministry as a priest by regularly using an incorrect formula. I deeply regret my error and how this has affected numerous people in your parish and elsewhere," Arango wrote in his own message on the site.

Olmsted said the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2020 affirmed that when a baptism is conferred with the formula "We baptize ..." it is invalid and people need to be baptized again.

The diocese has set up a website for anyone who believes they had an invalid baptism. The diocese said baptisms Arango conducted after June 17, 2021, are presumed valid.

According to Katie Burke, a spokesperson for the diocese, some new baptisms have already taken place.

Arango began his career in Brazil in 1995. He will continue to be a priest and will dedicate his energy and time to help those who had invalid baptisms.

Olmsted said he did not believe Andres intended to harm any of the parishioners.

"I too am sincerely sorry that this error has resulted in disruption to the sacramental lives of a number of the faithful. This is why I pledge to take every step necessary to remedy the situation for everyone impacted," Olmsted said.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, there are seven sacraments in the Catholic church: baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, reconciliation, anointing the sick, marriage and holy orders.

"Through the Sacraments, God shares his holiness with us so that we, in turn, can make the world holier," the conference says on its website.

AKRON, Ohio — Investigators in Ohio have found 89 sets of cremated remains in an abandoned church in Akron.

Court documents obtained by News 5 show an urban explorer, or urbexer, who commonly travels around to photograph older buildings, found the cremated remains of multiple people inside an abandoned Akron church on Sunday.

They then notified the Ohio Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, who passed on the information to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

The remains were found in a building operated by an Akron man currently facing charges for providing funeral services without a license. His attorney said the remains were the property of a now-deceased Toledo funeral director.

According to the search warrant, the urbexer and another party spotted several people entering and exiting Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church, 825 East Buchtel Ave., and went inside to tell them to leave.

Once inside, the urbexer came across suspected cremated remains. The remains were in white cardboard boxes labeled "Tri-County Cremation Service" and plastic bags dated back to 2010.

"There are significant health issues, significant dignity issues," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. "This is not just a regulatory issue. And some of the things we're seeing, they're just not right."

The warrant states that an Akron resident named Shawnte Hardin operated Hussain Funeral Home and Celebration of Life out of the building as recently as Jan. 14, 2019. The sign out front refers to the building as the Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church. Hardin's name is on the church's sign.

News 5 has previously reported on Hardin, who is currently charged with more than three dozen counts for allegedly providing funeral services without a license.

Hardin was indicted in October 2021, according to the Ohio Attorney General's Office. He is not a licensed funeral director or embalmer in Ohio, court documents state. Last year, Ohio BCI "removed two bodies from a building he was using for makeshift funeral services at 1615 E. Livingston Ave. in Columbus."

In June 2020, a Lucas County grand jury indicted Hardin on a charge of abuse of a corpse. A separate search warrant previously executed at Islamic Cemetery in Columbus recovered the remains of individuals cremated in Akron and had been in Hardin's possession. Court documents noted that the Islamic faith does not "conduct or condone cremations."

News 5 spoke with Hardin's attorney, who said the cremated remains belonged to former Toledo funeral director Robert Tate, who had his license pulled in 2016.

The lawyer explained that Hardin agreed to store the remains in 2017 while Tate tried to reach the families. According to his online obituary, Tate died in 2021.

Yost told News 5 the investigation is ongoing. However, from what people have seen so far, he hopes that there’s a lesson to be taken away.

"Make sure that you are dealing with a licensed professional who is going to abide by the laws and the appropriate health regulations, and secondly, reach out to somebody who's been through it and get the advice of somebody you trust," he added.

It’s not clear at this time what will happen to the remains of those loved ones found and when they could finally be returned to their families.

Drew Scofield and Clay LePard at WEWS in Cleveland, Ohio, first reported this story.

CINCINNATI —

As a member of Crossroads Church in Oakley, Robbie Dufek said she has been inspired to give back.

"I'm a kind of giver that I do it for me, the joy that it brings me knowing that somebody else is going to receive the gift that I give them. I don't need to know who it is," Dufek said.

Knowing she's making a difference is what means the most to Dufek.

"It is just the act of giving that is important to me, and what I like to share and what my family likes to do," Dufek said.

Her family is one of the thousands participating in this year's Thanksgiving food drive through Crossroads.

Everyone who picks up a box is asked to load it up with a turkey and all the fixings.

"Each meal feeds six to ten people. So, across all Crossroads sites, we're looking at 100,000 people will be fed from all of these boxes throughout the region," said Keymonte Crooms, ReachOut Site Director at Crossroads in Oakley.

Boxes should all be filled by this weekend, just in time for the big-drop off. Like in past years, donors won't even have to get out of their cars to share a meal that feeds the soul.

"We've even had people see the collection going on and run to Kroger without a box and show up with plastic bags and say, 'Here's the food' and we'll have a box and can box it up for them that way," Crooms said.

Every box collected with then be distributed to 70 organizations throughout Greater Cincinnati that will then give Thanksgiving dinners to their members.

Anyone who wants to get involved can pick up a box at any Crossroads location.

ROME —

Pope Francis was discharged from a Rome hospital and returned home to the Vatican on Wednesday, 10 days after undergoing surgery to remove half his colon.

Francis, 84, sat in the passenger seat of the Ford car, which left Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic around 10:45 a.m. (4:45 a.m. EDT). He made a stop to pray at Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, which has a beloved icon of the Virgin Mary which Francis always visits after returning home from a foreign trip.

After the brief stop, Francis' small motorcade approached a side entrance to the Vatican. The Ford stopped before reaching the gate and Francis got out with the help of a bodyguard. He greeted some Italian security guards — two army soldiers standing guard and a handful of Italian police motorcycle escorts — and got back in the car, which then entered the Vatican through the Perugino gate.

Francis had half of his colon removed for a severe narrowing of his large intestine on July 4, his first major surgery since he became pope in 2013. It was a planned procedure, scheduled for early July when the pope’s audiences are suspended anyway and Francis would normally take some time off.

The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, confirmed Francis' return from the hospital and visit to the Rome basilica. Praying before the icon, Francis “expressed his gratitude for the success of his surgery and offered a prayer for all the sick, especially those he had met during his stay in hospital," Bruni said in the statement.

Francis will have several more weeks to recover before beginning to travel again in September. There are plans for him to visit Hungary and Slovakia in a Sept. 12-15 trip, and then make a quick stop in Glasgow, Scotland, in November to participate in the COP26 climate conference. Other possible trips are also under review.

The Vatican had originally said Francis could be discharged last weekend, but later said he would stay a few days extra for further recovery and rehabilitation therapy.

The pope appeared for the first time in public since the surgery on Sunday, looking in good form as he delivered his weekly prayer from the 10th floor hospital balcony, surrounded by young cancer patients. He used the occasion to call for free health care for all.

On Tuesday afternoon, the eve of his release, he visited the pediatric cancer ward, which is located on the same floor as the papal hospital suite.

The Argentine pope had part of one lung removed when he was a young man but has otherwise enjoyed relatively robust health.

Video above: These are the victims of the Texas church shooting

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the negligence of the United States government was mostly responsible for the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent history.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez for the Western District of Texas concluded the Air Force failed to exercise reasonable care when it didn't submit the shooter's criminal history to the FBI's background check system, which increased the risk of physical harm to the general public.

"Moreover, the evidence shows that — had the Government done its job and properly reported Kelley's information into the background check system — it is more likely than not that Kelley would have been deterred from carrying out the Church shooting," the ruling stated. "For these reasons, the Government bears significant responsibility for the Plaintiffs' harm."

The court found the government 60% responsible for the harm that happened in the shooting and "jointly and severally liable for the damages that may be awarded." The ruling was signed on Tuesday and comes after a suit brought by survivors of the shooting and relatives of those killed or injured.

The judge's order states that no other individual — not even the shooter's parents or partners — knew as much as the government did about his violent history and the violence he was capable of committing. After the rampage, the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The U.S. Air Force Public Affairs office declined to comment to CNN on Wednesday, citing the ongoing case.

On Nov. 5, 2017, the gunman killed 26 people and wounded 22 others at the First Baptist Church in the small community of Sutherland Springs.

The shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, was a former member of the U.S. Air Force. He was charged in military court in 2012 on suspicion of assaulting his spouse and their child. Kelley received a bad conduct discharge, confinement for 12 months, and was demoted to E-1, or airman basic.

But despite his history of domestic abuse and questionable behavior involving firearms, Kelley was able to purchase the Ruger AR-556 rifle he allegedly used in the shooting from a store in San Antonio, Texas in April 2016, a law enforcement official previously told CNN.

The Air Force had acknowledged in 2017 that it did not relay the killer's court martial conviction for domestic assault to civilian law enforcement that could have prevented him from purchasing the firearms used in the shooting.

The failure to relay that information prevented the entry of his conviction into the federal database that must be checked before someone is able to purchase a firearm. Had his information been in the database at the National Criminal Information Center, it should have prevented gun sales to Kelley. Federal law prohibits people convicted of a misdemeanor crime involving domestic violence from owning firearms.

Stephen Willeford, the hero who chased off the Sutherland Springs church shooter, said the judge made the right decision.

"Rock and roll. This is what should have happened all along," he told CNN when reached by phone Wednesday morning. "The Air Force is definitely at fault for not entering that into the NICS system. I've been saying that all along."

Willeford was not a part of the civil lawsuit, but he said the decision will help the survivors who were gravely injured and still suffering from medical issues.

"It feels like vindication," he said. "Our government needs to take responsible when it screws up."

Willeford expressed concern that the military may not have entered critical background information about other people into the system. "This could potentially happen again."

In the months after the shooting, the U.S. Department of Defense scrambled to ensure all of its branches have properly updated the FBI's system to track personnel kicked out of the military who are barred from owning firearms.

The Supreme Court is telling California that it can't enforce coronavirus-related restrictions that have limited home-based religious worship including Bible studies and prayer meetings.

The order from the court late Friday is the latest in a recent string of cases in which the high court has barred officials from enforcing some coronavirus-related restrictions applying to religious gatherings.

Five conservative justices agreed that California restrictions that apply to in-home religious gatherings should be lifted for now, while the court's three liberals and Chief Justice John Roberts would not have done so.

California has already, however, announced significant changes loosening restrictions on gatherings that go into effect April 15. The changes come after infection rates have gone down in the state.

The case before the justices involved California rules that in most of the state limit indoor social gatherings to no more than three households. Attendees are required to wear masks and physically distance from one another. Different restrictions apply to places including schools, grocery stores and churches.

"California treats some comparable secular activities more favorably than at-home religious exercise," allowing hair salons, retail stores, and movie theaters, among other places, "to bring together more than three households at a time," the unsigned order from the court said. A lower court "did not conclude that those activities pose a lesser risk of transmission than applicants' proposed religious exercise at home," it said.

The court acknowledged that California's policy on gatherings will change next week but said the restrictions remain in place until then and that "officials with a track record of 'moving the goalposts' retain authority to reinstate those heightened restrictions at any time."

Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent for herself and her liberal colleagues, Justice Stephen Breyer and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, that the court's majority was hurting state officials' ability to address a public health emergency.

"California limits religious gatherings in homes to three households. If the State also limits all secular gatherings in homes to three households, it has complied with the First Amendment. And the State does exactly that: It has adopted a blanket restriction on at-home gatherings of all kinds, religious and secular alike. California need not ... treat at-home religious gatherings the same as hardware stores and hair salons," she wrote. She added that "the law does not require that the State equally treat apples and watermelons."

The case before the justices involved two residents of Santa Clara County in the San Francisco Bay Area, who want to host small, in-person Bible study sessions in their homes. California had defended its policy of restricting social gatherings as "entirely neutral."

The court has dealt with a string of cases in which religious groups have challenged coronavirus restrictions impacting worship services. While early in the pandemic the court sided with state officials over the objection of religious groups, that changed following the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last September and her replacement by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

In November, the high court barred New York from enforcing certain limits on attendance at churches and synagogues in areas designated as hard hit by the virus. And in February, the high court told California that it can't bar indoor church services because of the coronavirus pandemic, though it let stand for now a ban on singing and chanting indoors.

File video: Religious leaders react to Supreme Court decision on indoor services

A Warren County man who met his victims through his volunteer work as a church bus driver was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati to 30 years in prison for sexually abusing two young boys, according to the Journal-News.

A federal grand jury charged Jory Leedy, 51, of Franklin, in April 2016. Leedy pleaded guilty in June 2019 on the day he was scheduled to begin a jury trial.

According to court documents, Leedy sexually abused at least two boys as young as 7 and 8. Leedy met the children through Target Dayton Ministries, where he volunteered as a bus driver. The children rode the bus, along with their mother, to the church on Sundays. Thereafter, Leedy stopped by the residence to play with the boys and eat dinner with the family. Leedy stopped volunteering as a bus driver shortly after.

Leedy began going to the residence on a nightly basis. He began buying the boys clothes and games. Eventually, Leedy ingratiated himself into the family, taking the boys to church in Cincinnati and on trips to the Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Reds games and Kings Island. He also began taking the boys on vacations out of state, including to religious concerts and to Disney World, according to court documents.

Leedy arranged for the purchase of a car for the family. He helped enroll the boys in a private school. Further, Leedy assisted the family in securing another home that was owned by a friend of his; Leedy paid for part of the rent, according to court documents.

Leedy gave the victims’ family a fake name. His true identity was discovered during an altercation with the victims’ father in which the police were called. Police told parents Leedy’s real name and that he was a registered sex offender, according to court documents.

The victims told police the abuse took place over the course of two years and occurred in different states, including Kentucky, Florida and New York, according to court documents.

In addition, Leedy admitted in court documents that between 1999 and 2001 he sexually abused a then-minor relative when he would take the boy on trips for sporting events, according to court documents.

Leedy served two years in prison after a 2002 Montgomery County Common Pleas Court conviction for gross sexual imposition of a minor who was younger than 13.