Current Events and News
From the Diocese
Diocese to Livestream Triduum Services
The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has announced plans to livestream Triduum services with Bishop Mark Bartchak as presider and homilist, in addition to the regularly scheduled television broadcast of the Bishop’s Easter Sunday Mass. The following is a schedule: Holy...
Closure of Churches and Discontinuation of Services
Memo from: Bishop Mark To: All Clergy Date: April 1, 2020 Re: Closure of Churches and Discontinuation of Services Today, state health officials today announced 962 new COVID-19 cases as the statewide total jumped to almost 6,000. Pennsylvania’s death toll climbed to...
New Directives
As part of a continuing effort to protect the health and safety of parishioners, clergy, and staff, Bishop Mark L. Bartchak has issued new directives, which include closing all church buildings to the public and prohibiting outdoor activities on parish properties...
Holy Week Resources
Palm Sunday Proclaim! at 10:30 a.m. on WATM ABC 23Bishop Mark explains ways to engage in the solemnity of Holy Week at homeClergy offer messages of hope during these challenging times Mass with Bishop Mark11:00 a.m. on WATM ABC 239:00 p.m. on Atlantic Broadband...
Bishop’s Easter Message
It sounds so awkward to say Happy Easter this year. During the past month, people everywhere added new words to their vocabulary: Coronavirus and COVID-19. The dreaded virus that these words represent made us learn another dimension of living as we “shelter in place.”...
Blessed Palm
As parishes and the faithful look ahead to Palm Sunday next weekend, the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown continues to be aware of the need for social distancing and other necessary precautions. Bishop Mark has directed parishes to not distribute blessed palm to the...
Governor Wolf extended his “Stay at Home” Order
Dear Brothers in Christ, Earlier today Governor Wolf extended his "Stay at Home" order to include Centre County. In keeping with our protocols announced earlier (March 20), in order to protect the faithful and follow this important restriction put in place by the...
Memo from: Bishop Mark
Memo from: Bishop Mark To: All Clergy Date: March 25, 2020 Re: Celebration of the Liturgies of Holy Week and Especially the Sacred Triduum In this time of need, directives have been issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, as...
Bishop Suspends All Public Masses
Bishop Mark L. Bartchak announced the suspension of the celebration of all public Masses and all other liturgical celebrations in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown effective March 17, 2020, and continuing until further notice. Throughout this time, the dispensed...
Liturgical Directives
The following directives were communicated to the clergy of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown on March 17, 2020. The directives remain in effect until further notice. If questions arise concerning the impact of these directives, please contact your pastor for further...
Saint of the Day
St. Notburga: Saint of the Day for Sunday, September 14, 2025
Patroness of poor peasants and servants in the Tyrol. Born in Rattenberg, in the Tyrol, she was the daughter of peasants. At eighteen she became a servant in the household of Count Henry of Rattenberg When Notburga repeatedly gave food to the poor, she was dismissed...
St. John Chrysostom: Saint of the Day for Saturday, September 13, 2025
St. John, named Chrysostom (golden-mouthed) on account of his eloquence, came into the world of Christian parents, about the year 344, in the city of Antioch. His mother, at the age of 20, was a model of virtue. He studied rhetoric under Libanius, a pagan, the most...
St. Ailbhe: Saint of the Day for Friday, September 12, 2025
Bishop and preacher, one of the saints whose life has been woven into the myths and legends of Ireland. He was a known disciple of St. Patrick, and is called Albeus in some records. What is known about Ailbhe is that he was a missionary in Ireland, perhaps sponsored...
St. Paphnutius: Saint of the Day for Thursday, September 11, 2025
The holy confessor Paphnutius was an Egyptian who, after having spent several years in the desert under the direction of the great St. Antony, was made bishop in the Upper Thebaid. He was one of those confessors who under the Emperor Maximinus lost the right eye, were...
St. Salvius of Albi: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Bishop of Albi and a friend of Pope St. Gregory I the Great. Also called Sauve, he was a native of Albi and, originally a lawyer, he entered a monastery and served for a time as a monk before receiving election as abbot. Then, after, hying as a hermit, he became a...
St. Peter Claver: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, September 09, 2025
St. Peter Claver was born at Verdu, Catalonia, Spain, in 1580, of impoverished parents descended from ancient and distinguished families. He studied at the Jesuit college of Barcelona, entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona in 1602 and took his final vows on August...
St. Adrian: Saint of the Day for Monday, September 08, 2025
According to legend Adrian was a pagan officer at the imperial court of Nicomedia. Impressed by the courage of a group of Christians who were being tortured, he declared himself a Christian and was imprisoned with them and suffered excruciating tortures before he was...
St. Cloud: Saint of the Day for Sunday, September 07, 2025
On the death of Clovis, King of the Franks, in the year 511 his kingdom was divided between his four sons, of whom the second was Clodomir. Thirteen years later he was killed fighting against his cousin, Gondomar, leaving three sons to share his dominions. The...
St. Eleutherius: Saint of the Day for Saturday, September 06, 2025
A wonderful simplicity and spirit of compunction were the distinguishing virtues of this holy man. He was chosen abbot of St. Mark's near Spoleto, and favored by God with the gift of miracles. A child who was possessed by the devil, being delivered by being educated...
St. Teresa of Calcutta: Saint of the Day for Friday, September 05, 2025
The remarkable woman who would be known as Mother Teresa began life named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, she was the youngest child born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu. Receiving her First Communion at the age of five, she was confirmed in...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Sunday, September 14, 2025
Reading 1, Numbers 21:4-9 4 They left Mount Hor by the road to the Sea of Suph, to skirt round Edom. On the way the people lost patience.5 They spoke against God and against Moses, 'Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the desert? For there is neither food nor...
Daily Readings for Saturday, September 13, 2025
Reading 1, First Timothy 1:15-17 15 Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them;16 and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me...
Daily Readings for Friday, September 12, 2025
Reading 1, First Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14 1 Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus appointed by the command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope,2 to Timothy, true child of mine in the faith. Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.12 I...
Daily Readings for Thursday, September 11, 2025
Reading 1, Colossians 3:12-17 12 As the chosen of God, then, the holy people whom he loves, you are to be clothed in heartfelt compassion, in generosity and humility, gentleness and patience.13 Bear with one another; forgive each other if one of you has a complaint...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Reading 1, Colossians 3:1-11 1 Since you have been raised up to be with Christ, you must look for the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God's right hand.2 Let your thoughts be on things above, not on the things that are on the earth,3 because you have...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, September 09, 2025
Reading 1, Isaiah 58:6-11 6 Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes?7 Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if...
Daily Readings for Monday, September 08, 2025
Reading 1, Micah 5:1-4 1 But you (Bethlehem) Ephrathah, the least of the clans of Judah, from you will come for me a future ruler of Israel whose origins go back to the distant past, to the days of old.2 Hence Yahweh will abandon them only until she who is in labour...
Daily Readings for Sunday, September 07, 2025
Reading 1, Wisdom 9:13-18 13 'What human being indeed can know the intentions of God? And who can comprehend the will of the Lord?14 For the reasoning of mortals is inadequate, our attitudes of mind unstable;15 for a perishable body presses down the soul, and this...
Daily Readings for Saturday, September 06, 2025
Reading 1, Colossians 1:21-23 21 You were once estranged and of hostile intent through your evil behaviour;22 now he has reconciled you, by his death and in that mortal body, to bring you before himself holy, faultless and irreproachable-23 as long as you persevere...
Daily Readings for Friday, September 05, 2025
Reading 1, Colossians 1:15-20 15 He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation,16 for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers -- all things...