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. Vincent Pallotti: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, January 22, 2025
St. Vincent Pallotti, Priest (Feast - January 22) Born in Rome in 1795, St. Vincent became a priest and dedicated himself completely to God and cared for souls. He dreamed of gaining for Christ all non-Catholics, especially the Mohammedans. To this end he inaugurated...
St. Agnes: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, January 21, 2025
St. Agnes of Rome was born in 291 AD and raised in a Christian family. Agnes was very beautiful and belonged to a wealthy family. Her hand in marriage was highly sought after, and she had many high ranking men chasing after her. However, Agnes made a promise to God...
St. Fabian: Saint of the Day for Monday, January 20, 2025
Eusebius, born just a few years after Fabian's death, tells us how Fabian came to Rome after Pope Anteros died in 236. A layperson, and not a very important one, he may have come for the same reason many still come to Rome today during a papal election: concern for...
St. Fillan: Saint of the Day for Sunday, January 19, 2025
Fillan, son of Feriach and St. Kentigerna, was also known as Foelan. He became a monk in his youth and accompanied his mother from Ireland to Scotland where he lived as a hermit near St. Andrew's monastery for many years, and then was elected abbot. He later resigned...
St. Volusian: Saint of the Day for Saturday, January 18, 2025
Bishop of Tours, France. A senator at Tours, he was initially married, supposedly to a most unpleasant wife. Named bishop of the city in 488, he was forced to leave the see in 496 by the Arian Visigoths, and went to Spain. He died perhaps in Toulouse, or in Spain,...
St. Anthony the Abbot: Saint of the Day for Friday, January 17, 2025
Two Greek philosophers ventured out into the Egyptian desert to the mountain where Anthony lived. When they got there, Anthony asked them why they had come to talk to such a foolish man? He had reason to say that -- they saw before them a man who wore a skin, who...
St. Fursey: Saint of the Day for Thursday, January 16, 2025
Irish monastic founder, the brother of Sts. Foillan and Ulan, praised by St. Bede. Fursey was born on the island of Inisguia en Lough Carri, Ireland, as a noble. He founded Rathmat Abbey, now probably Killursa. In 630 Fursey and his friends went to East Anglia,...
St. Paul the Hermit: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Also known as Paul the First Hermit and Paul of Thebes, an Egyptian hermit and friend of St. Jerome. Born in Lower The baid, Egypt, he was left an orphan at about the age of fifteen and hid during the persecution of the Church under Emperor Traj anus Decius. At the...
St. Felix of Nola: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Felix was the son of Hermias, a Syrian who had been a Roman soldier. He was born on his father's estate at Nola near Naples, Italy. On the death of his father, Felix distributed his inheritance to the poor, was ordained by Bishop St. Maximus of Nola, and became his...
St. Hilary of Poitiers: Saint of the Day for Monday, January 13, 2025
"They didn't know who they were." This is how Hilary summed up the problem with the Arian heretics of the fourth century. Hilary, on the other hand, knew very well who he was -- a child of a loving God who had inherited eternal life through belief in the Son of God....
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Monday, February 10, 2025
Reading 1, Genesis 1:1-19 1 In the beginning God created heaven and earth.2 Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, with a divine wind sweeping over the waters.3 God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.4 God saw that light was...
Daily Readings for Sunday, February 09, 2025
Reading 1, Isaiah 6:1-2, 3-8 1 In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; his train filled the sanctuary.2 Above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings: two to cover its face, two to cover its feet and two for flying;3 and...
Daily Readings for Saturday, February 08, 2025
Reading 1, Hebrews 13:15-17, 20-21 15 Through him, let us offer God an unending sacrifice of praise, the fruit of the lips of those who acknowledge his name.16 Keep doing good works and sharing your resources, for these are the kinds of sacrifice that please God.17...
Daily Readings for Friday, February 07, 2025
Reading 1, Hebrews 13:1-8 1 Continue to love each other like brothers,2 and remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it.3 Keep in mind those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them;...
Daily Readings for Thursday, February 06, 2025
Reading 1, Hebrews 12:18-19, 21-24 18 What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire, or gloom or total darkness, or a storm;19 or trumpet-blast or the sound of a voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Reading 1, Hebrews 12:4-7, 11-15 4 In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of bloodshed.5 Have you forgotten that encouraging text in which you are addressed as sons? My son, do not scorn correction from the Lord, do not resent his...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, February 04, 2025
Reading 1, Hebrews 12:1-4 1 With so many witnesses in a great cloud all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us down and the sin that clings so closely, and with perseverance keep running in the race which lies ahead of us.2 Let us keep our...
Daily Readings for Monday, February 03, 2025
Reading 1, Hebrews 11:32-40 32 What more shall I say? There is not time for me to give an account of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, or of David, Samuel and the prophets.33 These were men who through faith conquered kingdoms, did what was upright and earned the...
Daily Readings for Sunday, February 02, 2025
Reading 1, Malachi 3:1-4 1 'Look, I shall send my messenger to clear a way before me. And suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his Temple; yes, the angel of the covenant, for whom you long, is on his way, says Yahweh Sabaoth.2 Who will be able to resist the...
Daily Readings for Saturday, February 01, 2025
Reading 1, Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 1 Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are unseen.2 It is for their faith that our ancestors are acknowledged.8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a...