Current Events and News
From the Diocese
Update on Diocesan Directives for Health and Safety During the Coronavirus Pandemic
A Message from Bishop Mark – August 6, 2020By now you have heard about a person who tested positive for the Coronavirus and attended Mass last weekend at Saint Francis of Assisi Parish, Johnstown. Public notice was made with due regard for the teaching and discipline...
Individual Who Was Present at Local Mass Tests Positive for COVID-19
An individual who attended Mass at a parish in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has tested positive for COVID-19.The person attended the 4:00 p.m. Mass at Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Johnstown on Saturday, August 1. Weekend Masses at Saint Francis of Assisi have...
A Message from Bishop Mark
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Someone recently told me that she could hear the sigh of relief recently as restrictions were lifted that allowed for our churches to reopen. Numerous people have remarked how grateful they are to attend Sunday Mass and receive the...
Welcome Back to Sunday Mass!
As Sunday and Weekday Masses are now being celebrated, there has been a steady increase in the number of people who are attending. So far, there has been a positive response to the precautions of placing donations in the basket at the end of Mass, using face masks and...
Summer Missionary Cooperative Program
[Description of program] To search for your local summer missionary, simply click on the name of your parish (separated by city) below, and you will be redirected. Alternatively, click here to jump to the full list of summer missionaries. If you wish to make a...
A Special Message from Bishop Mark
Young people in our diocese have frequently heard me tell them that the foundational principle of Catholic social teaching is the following: Every human person is made in the image and likeness of God. Period. It’s in the Sacred Scriptures (Genesis 1:27). No further...
New Directive Regarding Mass Atttendance
Bishop Mark has issued a new directive regarding the celebration of public Masses that lifts an earlier directive that would have limited the number of people permitted at each Mass to 25. When public Masses resume beginning the weekend of June 13-14, 2020, all are...
Parishes Announce Reconciliation Opportunities
Bishop Mark Bartchak has announced that the public celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation may resume at parishes beginning on May 23, 2020. Click HERE for a county-by-county schedule of upcoming Reconciliation opportunities at various parishes in the Diocese...
Dates for Public Confessions, Masses Announced
Bishop Mark has announced dates to resume the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the distribution of Holy Communion and the public celebration of Mass in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. According to the Bishop’s directives, issued on May 20, 2020, priests may resume the...
Bishop Announces Plan to Reopen Churches
The following is a message from Bishop Mark to all people of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown on May 13, 2020. Specific directives are being finalized and will be available prior the the reopening of church buildings on Saturday, May 16, which marks the...
Saint of the Day
St. Teresa of Avila: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Teresa of Avila was born Teresa Ali Fatim Corella Sanchez de Capeda y Ahumada in Avila, Spain. Less than twenty years before Teresa was born in 1515, Columbus opened up the Western Hemisphere to European colonization. Two years after she was born, Luther started the...
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...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 2:1-11 1 So no matter who you are, if you pass judgement you have no excuse. It is yourself that you condemn when you judge others, since you behave in the same way as those you are condemning.2 We are well aware that people who behave like that are...
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...