COLORADO SPRINGS. The recent news from Ukraine would keep most travelers far from eastern Europe, but not Ken Rackers.

Rackers, who is vice present of the board of directors of Catholic Outreach to Northern Ukraine (CONU), visited the wartorn country last October to get a first-hand assessment of the situation and help get the word out regarding the plight of citizens there.

Although the name of Thomy Lafon is not widely known outside of Louisiana, at one time he was the wealthiest Black man in the United States and one of the country’s great philanthropists.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Father Tomasz Jamka, pastor of Holy Apostles Parish, has been named the new chaplain and executive director of Catholic Outreach to Northern Ukraine, (CONU) the organization founded by Father Paul Wicker in the mid-1990s to help the Catholic Church in Ukraine rebuild after decades of Communist oppression.

Thoughts and Reflections from Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., Founder of Ignatius Press