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. 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...