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. Albert the Great: Saint of the Day for Saturday, November 15, 2025
The saint and doctor of the Church who would be known as Albertus Magnus was born sometime before the year 1200. He was probably born in Bavaria, a fact we infer because he referred to himself as "Albert of Lauingen," a town which still stands today in southern...
St. Lawrence O’Toole: Saint of the Day for Friday, November 14, 2025
St. Lawrence, it appears, was born about the year 1125. When only ten years old, his father delivered him up as a hostage to Dermod Mac Murehad, King of Leinster, who treated the child with great inhumanity, until his father obliged the tyrant to put him in the hands...
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini: Saint of the Day for Thursday, November 13, 2025
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini was born as Maria Francesca Cabrini on July 15, 1850 in Sant' Angelo Lodigiano, Lombardy, Italy. She was born two months premature and the youngest of thirteen children. Unfortunately, only three of her siblings survived past adolescence and...
St. Josaphat of Polotsk: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Josaphat, an Eastern Rite bishop, is held up as a martyr to church unity because he died trying to bring part of the Orthodox Church into union with Rome. In 1054, a formal split called a schism took place between the Eastern Church centered in Constantinople and the...
St. Martin of Tours: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Saint Martin of Tours was born in in Savaria, Pannonia in either the year 316 or 336 AD. That region is what is today the nation of Hungary. His father was a tribune, which is a high-ranking officer in the Imperial Horse Guard. Martin and his family went with his...
St. Leo the Great: Saint of the Day for Monday, November 10, 2025
Saint Leo the Great, also known as Pope Saint Leo I, was born into a Roman aristocratic family. His response to the call of the Lord transformed him into one of the greatest popes of Christian history. In fact, he was the first pope to be given the title "the Great."...
St. Benignus: Saint of the Day for Sunday, November 09, 2025
Bishop of Ireland, the son of Sechnaa, the psalm singer of St, Patrick. Sechnan was a chief in Meath, Ireland, converted by St. Patrick. Benignus became a disciple of St. Patrick and succeeded him as the chief bishop of Ireland. He converted the Irish in Clare, Kerry,...
St. Castorius: Saint of the Day for Saturday, November 08, 2025
St. Castorius is the patron saint of sculptors and his feast day is November 8th. Castorius, Claudius, Nicostratus, and Symphorian are called "the four crowned martyrs" who were tortured and executed in Pannonia, Hungary during the reign of Diocletian. According to...
St. Achillas: Saint of the Day for Friday, November 07, 2025
St. Achillas, a revered bishop and theologian, lived during a tumultuous period in the early Church marked by significant theological disputes. He was the Bishop of Alexandria, one of the most influential cities in the ancient world, both politically and spiritually....
St. Leonard: Saint of the Day for Thursday, November 06, 2025
According to unreliable sources, he was a Frank courtier who was converted by St. Remigius, refused the offer of a See from his godfather, King Clovis I, and became a monk at Micy. He lived as a hermit at Limoges and was rewarded by the king with all the land he could...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Saturday, November 15, 2025
Reading 1, Wisdom 18:14-16; 19:6-9 14 When peaceful silence lay over all, and night had run the half of her swift course,15 down from the heavens, from the royal throne, leapt your all-powerful Word like a pitiless warrior into the heart of a land doomed to...
Daily Readings for Friday, November 14, 2025
Reading 1, Wisdom 13:1-9 1 Yes, naturally stupid are all who are unaware of God, and who, from good things seen, have not been able to discover Him-who-is, or, by studying the works, have not recognised the Artificer.2 Fire, however, or wind, or the swift air, the...
Daily Readings for Thursday, November 13, 2025
Reading 1, Wisdom 7:22-8:1 22 For within her is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, incisive, unsullied, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, shrewd,23 irresistible, beneficent, friendly to human beings, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed,...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Reading 1, Wisdom 6:2-11 2 hear this, you who govern great populations, taking pride in your hosts of subject nations!3 For sovereignty is given to you by the Lord and power by the Most High, who will himself probe your acts and scrutinise your intentions.4 If...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Reading 1, Wisdom 2:23-3:9 23 For God created human beings to be immortal, he made them as an image of his own nature;24 Death came into the world only through the Devil's envy, as those who belong to him find to their cost.1 But the souls of the upright are in the...
Daily Readings for Monday, November 10, 2025
Reading 1, Wisdom 1:1-7 1 Love uprightness you who are rulers on earth, be properly disposed towards the Lord and seek him in simplicity of heart;2 for he will be found by those who do not put him to the test, revealing himself to those who do not mistrust him.3...
Daily Readings for Sunday, November 09, 2025
Daily Reading for Sunday November 9, 2025 Reading 1, Genesis 28:11-18Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 84:3, 4, 5-6, 8, 11Gospel, Luke 19:1-10Reading 2, First Corinthians 3:9-13, 16-17 Printable PDF of Today's Reading Past / Future Daily Readings Reading 1, Genesis 28:11-18...
Daily Readings for Saturday, November 08, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 16:3-9, 16, 22-27 3 My greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus,4 who risked their own necks to save my life; to them, thanks not only from me, but from all the churches among the gentiles;5 and my greetings to the church at...
Daily Readings for Friday, November 07, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 15:14-21 14 My brothers, I am quite sure that you, in particular, are full of goodness, fully instructed and capable of correcting each other.15 But I have special confidence in writing on some points to you, to refresh your memories, because of the...
Daily Readings for Thursday, November 06, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 14:7-12 7 For none of us lives for himself and none of us dies for himself;8 while we are alive, we are living for the Lord, and when we die, we die for the Lord: and so, alive or dead, we belong to the Lord.9 It was for this purpose that Christ both...