Current Events and News
From the Diocese
Directives for the Distribution of Ashes
Faithful are invited to Ash Wednesday Masses at parishes throughout the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Click HERE for a schedule of Masses at parishes. This year, because of the pandemic, and as previously announced, Bishop Mark has directed that ashes are to...
Ash Wednesday Mass Times
Faithful are invited to Ash Wednesday Masses at parishes throughout the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. This year, because of the pandemic, and as previously announced, Bishop Mark has directed that ashes are to be sprinkled on the heads of those who approach. This is a...
Reconciliation Opportunities
Bishop Mark has asked pastors to make various opportunities for Confession available at their parishes throughout Lent. The Bishop has instructed the clergy to not sponsor the usual Communal Penance Services because of the continuing pandemic.The Diocese of...
Take-Out Fish Lunches/Dinners
Bishop Mark is permitting parishes to sponsor fish lunches/dinners this Lent, but only in the format of take-out service. There is to be no indoor dining, according to his directives, and anyone who assists in food preparation and serving must be screened by...
Catholic Schools Week Message from Bishop Mark
Will Hegemann loves school and attending Mass every week with his classmates. Even at his young age, the first grader at Saint Michael School in Loretto realizes how lucky he is to be in a learning environment in which Jesus Christ is the center of everything. Will is...
Bishop’s Directives for the Blessing of Throats
January 2021The current pandemic is a sufficient pastoral reason to avoid the blessing of individuals in the usual manner of touching the throat of each person with crossed candles while saying the words of the blessing. Among the challenges is the sanitizing of the...
Bishop’s Directives for Distribution of Ashes
January 2021During this time of Pandemic, the Holy See has modified the method of distributing ashes as contained in the following Note from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued January 12, 2021: NOTE ON ASH...
2021 Plans for RCIA, Confirmation, First Holy Communion
By Tony DeGolProclaim!There is an old saying in entertainment that no matter what happens, the show must go on. Here in the Catholic Church, the sacramental life of our faith communities must go on as well, even in the midst of a pandemic. As the Diocese of...
Bishop’s Directives for Parish Lenten Fish Dinners
January 2021Ash Wednesday, February 17, marks the beginning of the holy season of Lent. It is also the starting date for annual Fish Dinners in parishes throughout the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. In many of those places it is a regular fundraiser to support parish...
Bishop’s Directives for Distribution of Palms
January 2021Ample instructions for the Commemoration of the Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem are found in the Roman Missal for the celebration of Palm Sunday. Three Forms are provided for this observance. Given the circumstances of the COVID pandemic, and in order to...
Saint of the Day
St. Callistus I: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Imagine that your biography was written by an enemy of yours. And that its information was all anyone would have not only for the rest of your life but for centuries to come. You would never be able to refute it -- and even if you couldno one would believe you because...
St. Edward the Confessor: Saint of the Day for Monday, October 13, 2025
Edward the Confessor was the son of King Ethelred III and his Norman wife, Emma, daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy. He was born at Islip, England, and sent to Normandy with his mother in the year 1013 when the Danes under Sweyn and his son Canute invaded England....
St. Wilfrid: Saint of the Day for Sunday, October 12, 2025
Born in Northumberland in 634, St. Wilfrid was educated at Lindesfarne and then spent some time in Lyons and Rome. Returning to England, he was elected abbot of Ripon in 658 and introduced the Roman rules and practices in opposition to the celtic ways of northern...
St. John XXIII: Saint of the Day for Saturday, October 11, 2025
The man who would be Pope John XXIII was born in the small village of Sotto il Monte in Italy, on November 25, 1881. He was the fourth of fourteen children born to poor parents who made their living by sharecropping. Named Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the baby would...
St. Francis Borgia: Saint of the Day for Friday, October 10, 2025
Francis was a young nobleman at the court of the King of Spain. He became a Duke when he was only thirty-three and lived a happy, peaceful life with his wife Eleanor and their eight children. But unlike so many other powerful nobles, Francis was a perfect Christian...
Sts. Denis, Rusticus, and Eleutherius: Saint of the Day for Thursday, October 09, 2025
The first mention we have of these three martyrs who died around 258 A.D. comes in the sixth century in the writings of Saint Gregory of Tours. Denis (or Dionysius as he is also called) is the most famous of the three. Born and raised in Italy, he was sent as a...
St. Pelagia: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Pelagia, more often called Margaret, on account of the magnificence of the pearls for which she had so often sold herself, was an actress of Antioch, equally celebrated for her beauty, her wealth and the disorder ofher life. During a synod at Antioch, she passed...
St. Artaldus: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Artaldus (also called Arthaud) was born in the castle of Sothonod in Savoy. At the age of eighteen, he went to the court of Duke Amadeus III, but a year or two after, he became a Carthusian at Portes. After many years, being a priest and an experienced and holy...
St. Bruno: Saint of the Day for Monday, October 06, 2025
Bruno was born in Cologne of the prominent Hartenfaust family. He studied at the Cathedral school at Rheims, and on his return to Cologne about 1055, was ordained and became a Canon at St. Cunibert's. He returned to Rheims in 1056 as professor of theology, became head...
St. Faustina Kowalska: Saint of the Day for Sunday, October 05, 2025
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament was born as Helena Kowalska, in Glogowiec, Leczyca County, north-west of LĂ?Âłdz in Poland on August 25, 1905. She was the third of 10 children to a poor and religious family. Faustina first felt a calling to the...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 1:16-25 16 For I see no reason to be ashamed of the gospel; it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who has faith -- Jews first, but Greeks as well-17 for in it is revealed the saving justice of God: a justice based on faith and addressed to...
Daily Readings for Monday, October 13, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 1:1-7 1 From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle,2 set apart for the service of the gospel that God promised long ago through his prophets in the holy scriptures.3 This is the gospel concerning his Son who, in terms of human...
Daily Readings for Sunday, October 12, 2025
Reading 1, Second Kings 5:14-17 14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, as Elisha had told him to do. And his flesh became clean once more like the flesh of a little child.15 Returning to Elisha with his whole escort, he went in and,...
Daily Readings for Saturday, October 11, 2025
Reading 1, Joel 4:12-21 12 'Let the nations rouse themselves and march to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I shall sit in judgement on all the nations around.13 Ply the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come and tread, for the winepress is full; the vats are...
Daily Readings for Friday, October 10, 2025
Reading 1, Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2 13 Priests, put on sackcloth and lament! You ministers of the altar, wail! Come here, lie in sackcloth all night long, you ministers of my God! For the Temple of your God has been deprived of cereal offering and libation.14 Order a fast,...
Daily Readings for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Reading 1, Malachi 3:13-20 13 'You have said harsh things about me, says Yahweh. And yet you say, "What have we said against you?"14 You have said, "It is useless to serve God; what is the good of keeping his commands or of walking mournfully before Yahweh Sabaoth?15...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Reading 1, Jonah 4:1-11 1 This made Jonah very indignant; he fell into a rage.2 He prayed to Yahweh and said, 'Please, Yahweh, isn't this what I said would happen when I was still in my own country? That was why I first tried to flee to Tarshish, since I knew you were...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Reading 1, Jonah 3:1-10 1 The word of Yahweh was addressed to Jonah a second time.2 'Up!' he said, 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it as I shall tell you.'3 Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was a city...
Daily Readings for Monday, October 06, 2025
Reading 1, Jonah 1:1-2:1, 11 1 The word of Yahweh was addressed to Jonah son of Amittai:2 'Up!' he said, 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to them that their wickedness has forced itself upon me.'3 Jonah set about running away from Yahweh, and going to...
Daily Readings for Sunday, October 05, 2025
Reading 1, Habakkuk 1:2-3,2:2-4 2 How long, Yahweh, am I to cry for help while you will not listen; to cry, 'Violence!' in your ear while you will not save?3 Why do you make me see wrong-doing, why do you countenance oppression? Plundering and violence confront me,...