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. Francis Caracciolo: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Founder of the Minor Clerks Regular with St. John Augustine Adorno. He was born in 1563, a member of a noble Neapolitan family. Though he had a rare skin disease, much like leprosy, Francis became a priest, at which time his skin disease disappeared. In 1588, he...
St. Charles Lwanga and Companions: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
For those of us who think that the faith and zeal of the early Christians died out as the Church grew more safe and powerful through the centuries, the martyrs of Uganda are a reminder that persecution of Christians continues in modern times, even to the present day....
Sts. Marcellinus and Peter: Saint of the Day for Monday, June 02, 2025
Though we know very little about these two martyrs under Diocletian, there is no question that the early church venerated them. Evidence of the respect in which they were held are the basilica Constantine built over their tombs and the presence of their names in the...
St. Justin Martyr: Saint of the Day for Sunday, June 01, 2025
Christian apologist, born at Flavia Neapolis, about A.D. 100, converted to Christianity about A.D. 130, taught and defended the Christian religion in Asia Minor and at Rome, where he suffered martyrdom about the year 165. Two "Apologies" bearing his name and his...
St. Mechtildis: Saint of the Day for Saturday, May 31, 2025
Benedictine abbess and miracle worker. She was the daughter of Count Berthold of Andechs, in modem Bavaria, Germany. The count and his wife, Sophia, founded a monastery on their esĂ?Âtate at Diessen, Bavaria, and placed Mechtildis there at the age of five. She became...
St. Joan of Arc: Saint of the Day for Friday, May 30, 2025
St. Joan of Arc is the patroness of soldiers and of France. On January 6, 1412, Joan of Arc was born to pious parents of the French peasant class in the obscure village of Domremy, near the province of Lorraine. At a very early age, she was said to have heard the...
St. Maximinus of Trier: Saint of the Day for Thursday, May 29, 2025
Bishop of Trier, Germany, from 332, and a miracle worker. He was probably born at Silly, France, and succeeded St. Agritus as bishop of Trier, giving refuge to St. Athanasius in 336. St. Paul, the patriarch of Constantinople, was also given Maximinus� protection....
Bl. Margaret Pole: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Martyr of England. She was born Margaret Plantagenet, the niece of Edward IV and RichĂ?Âard III. She married Sir Reginald Pole about 1491 and bore five sons, including Reginald Cardinal Pole. Margaret was widowed, named countess of Salisbury, and appointed governess...
St. Augustine of Canterbury: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, May 27, 2025
At the end of the sixth century anyone would have said that Augustine had found his niche in life. Looking at this respected prior of a monastery, almost anyone would have predicted he would spend his last days there, instructing, governing, and settling even further...
St. Philip Neri: Saint of the Day for Monday, May 26, 2025
St. Philip Neri was a Christian missionary and founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, a community of Catholic priests and lay brothers. He was born in Florence on July 21, 1515 as one of four children to Francesco Neri. From a very young age, Philip was known for...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Reading 1, Acts 20:28-38 28 'Be on your guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you the guardians, to feed the Church of God which he bought with the blood of his own Son.29 'I know quite well that when I have gone fierce wolves...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Reading 1, Acts 20:17-27 17 From Miletus he sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus.18 When they arrived he addressed these words to them: 'You know what my way of life has been ever since the first day I set foot among you in Asia,19 how I have served the Lord...
Daily Readings for Monday, June 02, 2025
Reading 1, Acts 19:1-8 1 It happened that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul made his way overland as far as Ephesus, where he found a number of disciples.2 When he asked, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?' they answered, 'No, we were never...
Daily Readings for Sunday, June 01, 2025
Reading 1, Acts 7:55-60 55 But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand.56 'Look! I can see heaven thrown open,' he said, 'and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.'57 All the...
Daily Readings for Saturday, May 31, 2025
Reading 1, Zephaniah 3:14-18 14 Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem!15 Yahweh has repealed your sentence; he has turned your enemy away. Yahweh is king among you, Israel, you have nothing more...
Daily Readings for Friday, May 30, 2025
Reading 1, Acts 18:9-18 9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, 'Be fearless; speak out and do not keep silence:10 I am with you. I have so many people that belong to me in this city that no one will attempt to hurt you.'11 So Paul stayed there preaching the...
Daily Readings for Thursday, May 29, 2025
Reading 1, Acts 1:1-11 1 In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning2 until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven.3 He had shown...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Reading 1, Acts 17:15, 22-18:1 15 Paul's escort took him as far as Athens, and went back with instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin Paul as soon as they could.22 So Paul stood before the whole council of the Areopagus and made this speech: 'Men of Athens, I...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Reading 1, Acts 16:22-34 22 The crowd joined in and showed its hostility to them, so the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be flogged.23 They were given many lashes and then thrown into prison, and the gaoler was told to keep a close watch on them.24...
Daily Readings for Monday, May 26, 2025
Reading 1, Acts 16:11-15 11 Sailing from Troas we made a straight run for Samothrace; the next day for Neapolis,12 and from there for Philippi, a Roman colony and the principal city of that district of Macedonia.13 After a few days in this city we went outside the...