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
Martyrs of Chalcedon: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, September 24, 2024
A group of forty-nine Christians slain in Chalcedon during the reign of Emperor Diocletian . Records indicate that the martyrs were members of the choir in the church of Chalcedon. Excellent content provided by https://www.catholic.org/.
St. Padre Pio: Saint of the Day for Monday, September 23, 2024
St. Padre Pio was an Italian priest who was known for his piety and charity, as well as the gift of the stigmata, which has never been explained. St. Padre Pio was born Francesco Forgione, on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, Italy. His parents were peasant farmers. He...
St. Thomas of Villanueva: Saint of the Day for Sunday, September 22, 2024
Augustinian bishop. Born at Fuentellana, Castile, Spain, he was the son of a miller. He studied at the University of Alcala, earned a licentiate in theology, and became a professor there at the age of twenty-six. He declined the chair of philosophy at the university...
St. Matthew: Saint of the Day for Saturday, September 21, 2024
Little is known about St. Matthew, except that he was the son of Alpheus, and he was likely born in Galilee. He worked as a tax collector, which was a hated profession during the time of Christ. According to the Gospel, Matthew was working at a collection booth in...
Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions: Saint of the Day for Friday, September 20, 2024
Feastday: September 20 The evangelization of Korea began during the 17th century through a group of lay persons. A strong vital Christian community flourished there under lay leadership until missionaries arrived from the Paris Foreign Mission Society. During the...
St. Januarius: Saint of the Day for Thursday, September 19, 2024
St. Januarius was born in Italy and was bishop of Benevento during the Emperor Diocletion persecution. Bishop Januarius went to visit two deacons and two laymen in prison. He was then also imprison along with his deacon and lector. They were thrown to the wild beasts,...
St. Joseph of Cupertino: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, September 18, 2024
St. Joseph was born in 1603 at Cupertino, in the diocese of Nardo in the Kingdom of Naples. After spending his childhood and adolescence in simplicity and innocence, he finally joined the Franciscan Friars Minor Conventual. After his ordination to the holy priesthood,...
St. Robert Bellarmine: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Born at Montepulciano, Italy, October 4, 1542, St. Robert Bellarmine was the third of ten children. His mother, Cinzia Cervini, a niece of Pope Marcellus II, was dedicated to almsgiving, prayer, meditation, fasting, and mortification of the body. Robert entered the...
St. Cornelius: Saint of the Day for Monday, September 16, 2024
Cornelius whose feast day is September 16th. A Roman priest, Cornelius was elected Pope to succeed Fabian in an election delayed fourteen months by Decius' persecution of the Christians. The main issue of his pontificate was the treatment to be accorded Christians who...
St. Valerian: Saint of the Day for Sunday, September 15, 2024
The massacre of the martyrs of Lyons with their bishop, St. Pothinus, took place during the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius in the year 177. Marcellus, a priest, we are told, by Divine intervention, managed to escape to Chalon-sur-Saone, where he was given shelter....
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Reading 1, Proverbs 21:1-6, 10-13 1 Like flowing water is a king's heart in Yahweh's hand; he directs it wherever he pleases.2 All actions are straight in the doer's own eyes, but it is Yahweh who weighs hearts.3 To do what is upright and just is more pleasing to...
Daily Readings for Monday, September 23, 2024
Reading 1, Galatians 2:19-20 19 In fact, through the Law I am dead to the Law so that I can be alive to God. I have been crucified with Christ20 and yet I am alive; yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in me. The life that I am now living, subject to the...
Daily Readings for Sunday, September 22, 2024
Reading 1, Wisdom 2:17-20 17 Let us see if what he says is true, and test him to see what sort of end he will have.18 For if the upright man is God's son, God will help him and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.19 Let us test him with cruelty and with...
Daily Readings for Saturday, September 21, 2024
Reading 1, Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13 1 I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you therefore to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you were called.2 With all humility and gentleness, and with patience, support each other in love.3 Take every care to preserve the unity...
Daily Readings for Friday, September 20, 2024
Reading 1, Wisdom 3:1-9 1 But the souls of the upright are in the hands of God, and no torment can touch them.2 To the unenlightened, they appeared to die, their departure was regarded as disaster,3 their leaving us like annihilation; but they are at peace.4 If, as it...
Daily Readings for Thursday, September 19, 2024
Reading 1, First Corinthians 15:1-11 1 I want to make quite clear to you, brothers, what the message of the gospel that I preached to you is; you accepted it and took your stand on it,2 and you are saved by it, if you keep to the message I preached to you; otherwise...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Reading 1, First Corinthians 12:31-13:13 31 Set your mind on the higher gifts. And now I am going to put before you the best way of all.1 Though I command languages both human and angelic -- if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Reading 1, First Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31 12 For as with the human body which is a unity although it has many parts -- all the parts of the body, though many, still making up one single body -- so it is with Christ.13 We were baptised into one body in a single...
Daily Readings for Monday, September 16, 2024
Reading 1, First Corinthians 11:17-26, 33 17 Now that I am on the subject of instructions, I cannot congratulate you on the meetings you hold; they do more harm than good.18 In the first place, I hear that when you all come together in your assembly, there are...
Daily Readings for Sunday, September 15, 2024
Reading 1, Isaiah 50:4-9 4 Lord Yahweh has given me a disciple's tongue, for me to know how to give a word of comfort to the weary. Morning by morning he makes my ear alert to listen like a disciple.5 Lord Yahweh has opened my ear and I have not resisted, I have not...