Current Events and News
From the Diocese
Vaccine Q&A
From the United States Conference of Catholic BishopsJanuary 2021The development of vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic has received much public attention and raised several ethical questions related to their development and use. This document is intended to...
Christmas TV Show
Proclaim! TV is celebrating the glory of Christmas with a television special, “Joy to the World: Christmas in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.”Hosted and produced by Tony DeGol, Diocesan Director of Communications, the two-hour show will highlight...
God Saves
Christmas just won’t be the same this year. How many of us have heard those words lately? As a result of an invisible virus, people will not be getting together with extended family and friends to celebrate Christmas. Who would have thought that shoppers would be more...
Diocese to Broadcast Christmas Masses and Christmas TV Special
As part of its continuing efforts to keep local Catholics connected during the coronavirus pandemic, the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown is pleased to offer expanded television opportunities through its Proclaim! TV Ministry this Christmas.Bishop Mark Bartchak...
Parishes Announce Christmas Mass Schedule
By Justin KirklandProclaim!As Catholics, there is no better way to celebrate and experience God’s presence with us then in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Through the Mass, we are able to deepen our relationship with God, who came to us in the most unlikely way during...
Vaccine Clarification
By Tony DeGolProclaim!Bishop Mark Bartchak is joining other bishops in the United States in clarifying recent confusion regarding the “moral permissibility” of vaccines for COVID-19. According to Bishop Kevin Rhoades and Archbishop Joseph Naumann, vaccines from Pfizer...
What Comes After the Election Season?
A Reflection by Bishop MarkSince Election Day, I have received a few comments and concerns about Catholic Church leaders who have communicated with Joseph Biden. The focus of these concerns are political and religious. The political concern is that communication with...
Bishop Announces Directives for Advent Reconciliation and Christmas Masses
By Tony DeGolProclaim!In most parishes, the first vigil Mass on Christmas Eve usually attracts a ton of people with hardly an empty seat in the church. It is a challenging situation under normal circumstances, but especially worrisome during a pandemic. To help...
Advent Reconciliation Opportunities
By Justin KirklandProclaim!The Church celebrates Advent as a time that we may prepare our souls for the birth of Christ. Traditionally, before every major feast, time was taken by the faithful to prepare their hearts, through prayer, fasting, and penance. Christ came...
What Did Pope Francis Say?
A Message from Bishop MarkOctober 23, 2020What did Pope Francis say? I have been asked that question this week since it has been reported that Pope Francis may have just changed the Church’s teaching about marriage. That conclusion was based on something the Holy...
Saint of the Day
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...
St. Francis of Assisi: Saint of the Day for Saturday, October 04, 2025
Founder of the Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181. In 1182, Pietro Bernardone returned from a trip to France to find out his wife had given birth to a son. Far from being excited or apologetic because he'd been gone, Pietro was furious because she'd...
St. Ewald & Ewald: Saint of the Day for Friday, October 03, 2025
Martyred Northumbrian brothers, one called "the Fair" and one called "the Dark", companions of St. Willibrord. From Northumbria, they were educated in Ireland. These priests of the Benedictine Order went with Willibrord to Frisia, Netherlands. They were martyred...
St. Leger: Saint of the Day for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Leger was raised at the court of King Clotaire II and by his uncle, Bishop Didon of Poitiers. Leger was made archdeacon by Didon, was ordained, and in about 651, became abbot of Maxentius Abbey, where he introduced the Rule of St. Benedict. He served Queen Regent St....
St. Therese of Lisieux: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
Generations of Catholics have admired this young saint, called her the "Little Flower", and found in her short life more inspiration for their own lives than in volumes by theologians. Yet Therese died when she was 24, after having lived as cloistered Carmelite for...
St. Jerome: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Before he was known as Saint Jerome, he was named Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus. He was born around 342 AD, in Stridon, Dalmatia. Today, the town, which ceased to exist in Jerome�s time, would likely be in Croatia or Slovenia. The young Jerome was educated by...
St. Michael the Archangel: Saint of the Day for Monday, September 29, 2025
St. Michael the Archangel, also known as Saint Michael the Archangel or simply Archangel Michael, holds a significant place in the Roman Catholic tradition. He is an Archangel, associated with courage, protection, and divine intervention. Biblical and Historical Roots...
St. Lorenzo Ruiz: Saint of the Day for Sunday, September 28, 2025
Saint Lorenzo Ruiz was born around the year 1600 in Binondo, Manila in the Philippines. He was the son of a Chinese father and a Filipino mother. Both were Christians and took care to raise Lorenzo as a Catholic. He served happily in his parish church as an altar boy...
St. Vincent de Paul: Saint of the Day for Saturday, September 27, 2025
St. Vincent de Paul was born to a poor peasant family in the French village of Pouy on April 24, 1581. His first formal education was provided by the Franciscans. He did so well, he was hired to tutor the children of a nearby wealthy family. He used the monies he...
Sts. Cosmas & Damian: Saint of the Day for Friday, September 26, 2025
Sts. Cosmas and Damian were brothers, born in Arabia, who had become eminent for their skill in the science of medicine. Being Christians, they were filled with the spirit of charity and never took money for their services. At Egaea in Cilicia, where they lived, they...
Daily Reading
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,...
Daily Readings for Saturday, October 04, 2025
Reading 1, Baruch 4:5-12, 27-29 5 Take courage, my people, memorial of Israel!6 You were sold to the nations, but not for extermination. You provoked God; and so were delivered to your enemies,7 since you had angered your Creator by offering sacrifices to demons, and...
Daily Readings for Friday, October 03, 2025
Reading 1, Baruch 1:15-22 15 You must say: Saving justice is the Lord's, we have only the look of shame we bear, as is the case today for the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,16 for our kings and princes, our priests, our prophets, and for our...
Daily Readings for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Reading 1, Exodus 23:20-23 20 'Look, I am sending an angel to precede you, to guard you as you go and bring you to the place that I have prepared.21 Revere him and obey what he says. Do not defy him: he will not forgive any wrong-doing on your part, for my name is in...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
Reading 1, Nehemiah 2:1-8 1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, since I was in charge of the wine, I took the wine and offered it to the king. Now, he had never seen me looking depressed before.2 So the king said to me, 'Why are you...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Reading 1, Zechariah 8:20-23 20 'Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "In the future, peoples and citizens of many cities will come;21 and citizens of one city will go to the next and say: We must certainly go to entreat Yahweh's favour and seek out Yahweh Sabaoth; I am going...
Daily Readings for Monday, September 29, 2025
Reading 1, Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 9 While I was watching, thrones were set in place and one most venerable took his seat. His robe was white as snow, the hair of his head as pure as wool. His throne was a blaze of flames, its wheels were a burning fire.10 A stream of...
Daily Readings for Sunday, September 28, 2025
Reading 1, Amos 6:1, 4-7 1 Disaster for those so comfortable in Zion and for those so confident on the hill of Samaria, the notables of this first of nations, those to whom the House of Israel has recourse!4 Lying on ivory beds and sprawling on their divans, they dine...
Daily Readings for Saturday, September 27, 2025
Reading 1, Zechariah 2:5-9, 14-15 5 Then, raising my eyes, I had a vision. There was a man with a measuring line in his hand.6 I asked him, 'Where are you going?' He said, 'To measure Jerusalem, to calculate her width and length.'7 And then, while the angel who was...
Daily Readings for Friday, September 26, 2025
Reading 1, Haggai 1:15-2:9 15 This was on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. In the second year of King Darius,1 on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of Yahweh was addressed through the prophet Haggai, as follows,2 'You are to speak to...