Mel Evans / AP file

Harry Pangemanan, one of the Indonesian Christians who sought sanctuary at the Reformed Church of Highland Park. The feds have told the immigrants they can leave the church without facing detention.

Eight Indonesian immigrants who spent months holed up in a New Jersey church to avoid deportation have been told they're free to walk the streets again.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that it has placed the six men and two women on "order of supervision" -- which means they can be out in the community without worrying that agents will swoop down and place them in detention.

Pastor Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park in New Jersey.

Deportation orders signed by a judge are still in effect, but as long as the immigrants check in with the feds periodically, they don't have to worry about them being enforced -- for now, anyway.

"Absolute relief!" said Pastor Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park. "As you can imagine, church on Sunday was a gigantic celebration."

The church started giving sanctuary to some of its Indonesian parishioners nearly a year ago. At one point, nine were camping out in Sunday school classrooms.

Hairdressers and doctors made house calls so the "immigration fugitives," as ICE calls them, did not have to set foot off the property, where they could be arrested, the New York Daily News reported.

"The threat was real," Kaper-Dale said.

One immigrant who lived at the church for eight months left to drive his wife to work in October and was tailed and detained by federal agents two blocks away, Kaper-Dale said. Later that day, however, they released him and put his deportation on hold while his wife's asylum bid is pending.

The immigrants say they left Indonesia years ago because they feared being persecuted for their Christian faith. They overstayed their tourist visas and missed deadlines to apply for asylum. After a hands-off approach, ICE made them a priority and began cracking down on them last year.

"The whole thing has been so horrendous," Kaper-Dale said, but noted that the reprieve is a temporary fix.

He said church members are hoping that two bills that would give the Indonesians another shot at applying for asylum, which were reintroduced in Congress last week, will be passed this year to provide a permanent solution.

This story was originally published on Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:12 PM EST

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe, a Democrat, signed into law on Monday a bill that allows concealed-carry permit holders to take their weapons into churches.

The Church Protection Act would allow individual places of worship to decide whether to allow concealed handguns and who could carry them. Churches that take no action will remain off-limits to guns.

The Republican-controlled House passed the bill 85-8 with bipartisan support last week. The measure previously passed the Republican-controlled Senate 28-4.

The law takes place immediately.

Gun advocates praised Beebe for his action.

"It is crucial to protecting the freedom of religion and property rights," said Nicholas Stehle, a member of the board of directors of the advocacy group Arkansas Carry.

"The state has no business meddling in the affairs of our churches," Stehle said.

Arkansas joins a handful of other states, including South Carolina, Wyoming and Louisiana, that allow guns in churches, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Frantzesco Kangaris / AFP/Getty Images

Demonstrators hold placards during a march protesting against the Pope Benedict XVI's visit to London on Sept. 18, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI expressed his "deep sorrow" Saturday for the "immense suffering" of children abused by Catholic priests, in a homily on the third day of his state visit to Britain.

As Pope Benedict XVI’s prepares to step down, his legacy is being viewed through the prism of how he handled the child sex abuse crisis, with some observers saying he dealt with it aggressively while others calling his response to the scandals “woefully inadequate.”

During Benedict’s eight-year papacy, thousands of people came forward to claim that they had been raped or molested by priests as children, and that bishops had covered it up.

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, it was Benedict’s old office that dealt with abuse cases, yet he never admitted failure by himself or of the Vatican, and never punished bishops who ignored or covered up the abuse.

“It’s hard to escape the fact that his biggest challenge was the sex abuse crisis and it really didn’t get better during his papacy,” said Michael D’Antonio, author of the upcoming book “Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal.” “And in fact, one can see that the church declined in moral authority, especially in the developed world and that includes places like Ireland and Belgium, which were until a few years ago the most Catholic and the most conservatively Catholic countries in the world. And all of this, I really think is traceable to his failure.”

Benedict was “locked into an institution that may not be able to deal with this in a structural way,” he added. “He could go around and minister to victims, which he did, and I think that was a brave and profound thing to do, but he couldn’t change the definitive elements of the Catholic Church that enable abuse.”

Benedict made apologies and met with victims in the United States, Australia, his native Germany, Britain and Malta. The church also paid out more than $2.1 billion in settlements from 2004-2011 to victims, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In 2002, before he took up the papal post, a zero tolerance policy was implemented. But those efforts were not enough, critics said.
One victims’ rights group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called on Benedict to use his remaining days in the post to turn that around by forcing bishops to reveal the names of those priests facing credible accusations of abuse.

Carl Court / AFP/Getty Images

Demonstrators hold placards before a march protesting against the Pope Benedict XVI's visit to London on Sept. 18, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI expressed his "deep sorrow" Saturday for the "immense suffering" of children abused by Catholic priests, in a homily on the third day of his state visit to Britain.

“We can’t mistake words for deeds and, you know, actions speak louder than statements and to be honest with you, we feel that his response has been woefully inadequate,” said Barbara Blaine, the group’s president.

Another group, BishopAccountability.org, a library and internet archive of the scandals, welcomed the church’s efforts to address the troubles among its ranks, such as tackling the issue directly on the Vatican website and by making adjustments to its youth policy.

But the site’s founder, Terence McKiernan, said Ratzinger, even before taking on the papal post, was dogged by the scandal since he had read so many of the accounts of abuse in his role as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

He said Ratzinger had followed Pope John Paul II’s policy of not defrocking all accused priests — noting that the church was already concerned about losing priests to old age and dwindling seminary numbers.

“I think that it’s a huge opportunity missed, you know, people will say he did things and that’s certainly true,” McKiernan said. “But given the enormity of the crimes … and given the enormous power that the Pope has, I think that you could say that Benedict reacted to all of this rather than taking action. And apologies and nice speeches are not the same as actually taking vigorous action to remove the people responsible and revealing all the information that needs to be revealed. So it’s an opportunity missed, and I think as a result, the church has lost incredible amounts of credibility in all this.”

Vincenzo Pinto / AFP/Getty Images

Pope Benedict XVI puts oil on the altar during the Mass to mark the dedication of the new white marble altar in St. Mary Cathedral in Sydney on July 19, 2008. Pope Benedict XVI apologized explicitly to victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy, expressing his shame and calling for perpetrators of the "evil" to be brought to justice.

Benedict officially leaves office on Feb. 28. One of those who will participate in electing his successor, Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, was himself stripped of his administrative and public duties in early February after church personnel files revealed that he and other top Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials maneuvered behind the scenes to shield molester priests, provide damage control for the church and keep parishioners in the dark, NBC Los Angeles reported.

Still, some felt Benedict did step up to tackle the issue engulfing the church.

“He inherited a very tragic situation and he confronted it head on and has been a great reformer on this issue,” said Maureen Ferguson, a senior policy adviser at The Catholic Association. “The Catholic Church in the United States is now one of the leading institutions in terms of child protection policies.”

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, agreed.

“Nobody clearly did more to counter this problem in the Catholic Church,” he said. “ … he did move expeditiously, quite frankly, with a lot greater aggressiveness than his predecessor. John Paul II was a great man but this issue did languish there in the Vatican until Joseph Ratzinger … was able to deal with it.”

Donohue said that about a month before Ratzinger was named Pope, he spoke about the “filth” in the Catholic Church, referring to priests who were sexually abusing children.

He also banished a popular priest from ministry, Father Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, who was accused of sexually abusing underage seminaries, according to the National Catholic Reporter. 

“He took a position which took a great deal of courage to go against a very popular priest,” Donohue said. “An investigation of him had begun (under) John Paul II but it took Benedict to finish him, and he did finish him.”

“I think history will treat him very well in terms of dealing with the problem,” he added. “I think the issue is basically behind us, almost everything we hear today are these old cases.”

But D’Antonio wasn’t sure history would be so favorable to Benedict.

“He would have had to pick up the church and drag it into the 21st century but, you know, he could have,” he said. “He might have died trying, the stress of that might have been even more profound, he would have faced tremendous intrigue and opposition, but I suspect that instead he may go down in history as a caretaker, an interpersonally kind pastor who made no mark when he had the chance to.”

A church youth leader is charged with sexual assault of a child and online solicitation after an alleged sexual relationship with a teenager.

Police said James Ackley, a 25-year-old youth leader at University Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, had a relationship with a teenager younger than 17.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the relationship began in August 2012 at a retreat he was chaperoning.

The victim told police that "... during the retreat they held hands and kissed, but was unable to do anything else because Defendant Ackley had a girlfriend who was also attending the retreat."

When they returned home, "they would exchange text messages describing sex acts that they would perform on each other," she told police.

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The victim told police the two had sex in his truck in October at a parking lot outside St. Michael's Church.

In a letter to parishioners, UPUMC said it was working with police:

"We will also continue to take action to protect the children and youth of our church family by providing them a safe and secure environment," the church wrote. "Our hearts and prayers go out to all involved as we seek the Spirit's guidance, healing and care at every turn."

Ackley did some contract work at Bishop Lynch High School, helping with lighting events, and substituted on two half days. He was not a full-time school employee.

UPUMC said he underwent training in order to be a youth leader and a background check.

Updated at 4:50 p.m. ET: With tears and hugs, a grief-rocked Connecticut town said farewell Monday to the first of its slain children: two 6-year-olds being buried in unbearably small coffins on a cold, gray day.

The funerals of first graders Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto will be followed by two dozen more services over coming days as the other children and staffers murdered at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday are laid to rest.

PhotoBlog: Funerals begin for victims of Sandy Hook shooting

A misty rain was in the air as mourners -- many in black, others in school gear emblazoned with a capital “N” -- gathered outside the Honan Funeral Home on Main St. for Jack’s funeral.

Mourners said the sports-loving youngster was wearing the red-and-white jersey of his idol, New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, who had honored him by printing his name on his cleats for Sunday’s game.

At a viewing before the packed service, where psalms were read, more than two dozen members of his wrestling club presented Jack’s grandmother with their medals.

“We’re broken,” Jack Wellman, 13, who helped coach the junior wrestlers, said outside the funeral home.

“It’s a nightmare we’re not waking up from,” said his mother, Caren Wellman. Her son added, “Unfortunately, there’s going to be a lot more.”

Victims in Conn. shooting: Daring principal, fun-loving teacher, 6-year-old twin

Slideshow: Connecticut school massacre

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images

The second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for word on their loved ones.

Launch slideshow

Twenty-five miles away, in Fairfield, Noah’s family gathered at another funeral home, on a street where some nurses had decorated lampposts with white balloons and well-wishers left teddy bears and flowers at the base of a maple tree.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy met with family before the service at the Abraham L. Greene & Sons Funeral Home, where the brown-haired boy was laid in a simple wooden casket adorned with the Star of David.

Noah's mother, Veronika Pozner, spoke and called her son "her little man," according to Rabbi Yehoshua Hect.

An uncle, Alexis Haller, remembered Noah – whose twin sister, Arielle, was in a different classroom and survived Adam Lanza's murderous rampage -- as a funny child with a mischievous streak.

"If Noah had not been taken from us, he would have become a great man. He would been a wonderful husband and a loving father," Haller said, according to remarks he provided to The Associated Press.

It is unspeakably tragic that none of us can bring Noah back," he said. "We would go to the ends of the earth to do so, but none of us can. What we can do is carry Noah within us, always.

“We can remember the joy he brought to us. We can hold his memory close to our hearts. We can treasure him forever."

There will be no reprieve from the sorrow in Newtown this week, as each day brings more funerals.

On Tuesday, there will be a noon service at St. Rose of Lima Church in Newtown for Jessica Rekos, 6, a girl who loved horses and had asked Santa for cowgirl boots and a hat. Her parents had promised to get her a horse when she was 10.

Obama vows action on gun violence: 'These tragedies must end'

“She was a creative, beautiful little girl who loved playing with her little brothers, Travis and Shane,” her family said in a statement.

“She spent time writing in her journals, making up stories, and doing ‘research’ on orca whales - one of her passions after seeing the movie ‘Free Willy’ last year. She said her dream was to see a real orca. Thankfully her dream was realized in October when she went to SeaWorld.”

The couple called Jessica, their first-born, the “rock of the family.”

“She had an answer for everything, she didn't miss a trick, and she outsmarted us every time.  We called her our little CEO for the way she carefully thought out and planned everything,” they wrote.

“We cannot imagine our life without her. We are mourning her loss, sharing our beautiful memories we have of her, and trying to help her brother Travis understand why he can't play with his best friend.”

The funeral of teacher Victoria Soto, 27, is scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Lordship Community Church, Stratford. Burial will follow at Union Cemetery in Stratford.

Soto’s cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told the Wall Street Journal that she had tried to shield her first-graders from the bullets. "That is how she was found. Huddled with her children," Wiltsie said.

Seven-year-old student Daniel Barden’s funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Rose of Lima Church, followed by burial at St. Rose Cemetery.

A funeral mass for student Catherine Hubbard, 6, is due to be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Rose of Lima Church, followed by burial at St. Rose Cemetery.

Her parents, Jennifer and Matthew Hubbard, released a statement expressing gratitude to emergency responders and for the support of the community. “We are greatly saddened by the loss of our beautiful daughter, Catherine Violet, and our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who have been affected by this tragedy,” they said.

The Connecticut Funeral Directors Association is releasing details of the services, and victims’ families have been releasing statements with poignant memories.

The family of Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, 6, called her “our precious angel” – a generous spirit who left “I love you” notes under her parents’ pillow, who learned to sing before she talked, and who danced from room to room in her home.

“We ask that you pray for the legions of people who are left behind to cherish memories of her,” wrote her parents, Nelba Marquez-Greene and saxophonist Jimmy Greene.

“We also ask that you, like Ana, commit selfless acts of kindness to all those around you. Maybe, in some way, through love, similar senseless acts of violence could be prevented.”

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A Florida church service ended in tragedy Sunday afternoon when a man shot a woman multiple times, then killed himself outside the building, authorities and witnesses said.

Hundreds of congregants were exiting the sanctuary at Faith Center Church in the city of Sunrise just before 1 p.m. ET when the man began opening fire at the woman, possibly his ex-girlfriend, Sunrise police said.

"It was crazy. We just started running because a stray bullet doesn't know anyone," said witness and congregant Herrietha Gary. "I've never been so scared in all the days in my life -- just frantic."

Even though the armed assailant shot the woman several times, she managed to drive away, according to Sunrise police spokeswoman Officer Michelle Eddy. The shooting victim drove around the parking lot, where others found her, police said.

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Also inside the vehicle was her 12-year-old daughter, but the girl was unharmed, police said.

The armed man shot himself at the crime scene, police said. He was taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Eddy said. The wounded woman was taken to Broward Health, police said. Her latest condition wasn't available.

Their names haven't been released.

Sheltered in car
During the shooting, church leaders were ordering congregants back inside the church building, witnesses said. Other congregants already were in the parking lot.

Gary, the witness, said she thought she was hearing firecrackers, but a couple hiding behind a car warned her about the danger, she said. Gary said she was with her grandchild at the time.

"They were saying, 'Get down! Get down! There are gunshots!'" Gary said. "And I started hysterically screaming and running with my grandbaby.'"

Gary and her grandchild found shelter in her car and were unhurt, she said.

Congregant Daron Thompson said the shooting was "kind of strange."

"You think to yourself, 'Wow!' You know? I mean, you don't expect something like this to happen at church," Thompson said.

Faith Center Church at 5555 Northwest 95th Ave. -- also known as Faith Center Ministries -- drew a large turnout Sunday with a special guest speaker, congregants said. The church has a sprawling 75,000-foot facility, formerly known as Sunrise Theatre, according to its website.

Police still are investigating the shooting.

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The wife of the man who police say beat a pastor to death in a Texas church said Tuesday that her husband was mentally ill.

Police say Derrick Birdow, 33, killed Danny Kirk Sr. Monday after ramming into Greater Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church in Forest Hill with his car.

Birdow died after police used a stun gun to subdue him.

"I am torn, because not only did I lose my pastor, I lost my husband," said Shanellia Harris Birdow, his widow.

Harris Birdow, an active member of Greater Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church, said her husband did not know Kirk, although he had attended church there in the past.

Police: Texas pastor killed, suspect dies after being subdued by stun gun

She said that her husband, who had a lengthy criminal record, was mentally ill and had sought treatment last week at a Fort Worth hospital.

"He was sick," she said. "He was really sick. Even these last couple days, he was trying to get help, but he didn't get it."

She attended a vigil for Kirk on Tuesday night, unsure of how the congregation would react.

"I wanted them to know I didn't have anything to do with it," she said. "I don't know the reasons. I don't have answers to the questions that they have."

Candlelight vigil 
Church members and Kirk's family remembered the pastor at the candlelight vigil.

"Daddy, I am not going to do you wrong," said Danny Kirk Jr., the pastor's only son. "I am not going to bring shame to your name. You named me Danny Kirk Jr. for a reason."

He assured the congregation that he would take care of his mother and the church in his father's absence.

Danny Kirk Sr. had a daughter, Danielle, who died when she was just 3 years old. Church members say the family was still struggling with her death. His son said he takes great comfort in knowing his father and sister will now be together.

Forest Hill police say Birdow rammed his car into the front of the church on Monday afternoon before going inside and beating Kirk, the church founder, to death. A janitor trying to stop the assault was also injured, police said.

Barbara Moore, the church secretary, witnessed the attack and called 911. She told NBC 5 that she locked herself in her office while the men were fighting.

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"I saw them tussling in the truck, and he was trying to subdue him and he couldn't," she said. "I ran and called 911."

Police said Birdow was still attacking Kirk and the janitor when officers arrived. Officers used a stun gun to restrain him, arrested him and placed him in a police car.

Officers found him unresponsive about 10 minutes later, police said.