COLORADO SPRINGS. Nearly 30 years ago, a Catholic priest from Ukraine visited Colorado Springs and forged a lifelong friendship with a local pastor — a relationship that led to the creation of a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the Ukrainian Catholic Church rebuild after decades of Soviet oppression.

Last August, the same priest returned to Colorado Springs — this time as a bishop — to give local Catholics a first-hand account of conditions in his war-torn country and ask for their ongoing support.

I was reading at a Starbucks on the northeast side of Colorado Springs one morning last month when a teenage couple walked into the cafe. The girl was pulling a large suitcase and was wearing a baggy beige Cabela’s sweatshirt with pictures of deer and oversized grey sweatpants. The boy was similarly unkempt, wearing jeans three sizes too big and a dark, zip-up hoodie with pictures of marijuana leaves down the sleeves. His black hat was pulled low across his forehead so that his eyes disappeared behind the bill. The girl ordered and they went onto the patio to smoke as they drank, leaving the suitcase inside.

COLORADO SPRINGS. A preschool, an elementary school, and a high school in the Diocese of Colorado Springs recently adopted new names — all unaware of each other’s actions, all for their own distinct reasons, yet all at the same time.

Is there something in the holy water?

COLORADO SPRINGS. A recent pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain is being recognized for helping bring parishioners closer to family, friends and God.

Holy Cross Father Randy Rentner, associate pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Colorado Springs, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Manitou Springs and Holy Rosary Chapel in Cascade, led 19 parishioners along the Way of St. James in Spain — known as the Camino de Santiago — in July.