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. Josaphat of Polotsk: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Josaphat, an Eastern Rite bishop, is held up as a martyr to church unity because he died trying to bring part of the Orthodox Church into union with Rome. In 1054, a formal split called a schism took place between the Eastern Church centered in Constantinople and the...
St. Martin of Tours: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Saint Martin of Tours was born in in Savaria, Pannonia in either the year 316 or 336 AD. That region is what is today the nation of Hungary. His father was a tribune, which is a high-ranking officer in the Imperial Horse Guard. Martin and his family went with his...
St. Leo the Great: Saint of the Day for Monday, November 10, 2025
Saint Leo the Great, also known as Pope Saint Leo I, was born into a Roman aristocratic family. His response to the call of the Lord transformed him into one of the greatest popes of Christian history. In fact, he was the first pope to be given the title "the Great."...
St. Benignus: Saint of the Day for Sunday, November 09, 2025
Bishop of Ireland, the son of Sechnaa, the psalm singer of St, Patrick. Sechnan was a chief in Meath, Ireland, converted by St. Patrick. Benignus became a disciple of St. Patrick and succeeded him as the chief bishop of Ireland. He converted the Irish in Clare, Kerry,...
St. Castorius: Saint of the Day for Saturday, November 08, 2025
St. Castorius is the patron saint of sculptors and his feast day is November 8th. Castorius, Claudius, Nicostratus, and Symphorian are called "the four crowned martyrs" who were tortured and executed in Pannonia, Hungary during the reign of Diocletian. According to...
St. Achillas: Saint of the Day for Friday, November 07, 2025
St. Achillas, a revered bishop and theologian, lived during a tumultuous period in the early Church marked by significant theological disputes. He was the Bishop of Alexandria, one of the most influential cities in the ancient world, both politically and spiritually....
St. Leonard: Saint of the Day for Thursday, November 06, 2025
According to unreliable sources, he was a Frank courtier who was converted by St. Remigius, refused the offer of a See from his godfather, King Clovis I, and became a monk at Micy. He lived as a hermit at Limoges and was rewarded by the king with all the land he could...
St. Elizabeth: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, November 05, 2025
What we know of St. Elizabeth comes from the Gospel, the book of Luke, in particular. In Luke, Elizabeth, a daughter of the line of Aaron, and the wife of Zechariah, was "righteous before God" and was "blameless" but childless. Elizabeth is also a cousin to the Virgin...
St. Charles Borromeo: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, November 04, 2025
Saint Charles Borromeo was born on October 2, 1538 at the castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore near Milan. His father was the Count of Arona and his mother a member of the House of Medici. He was the third of six children born to the couple. At the age of 12, the young...
St. Martin de Porres: Saint of the Day for Monday, November 03, 2025
St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1579. Martin was the illegitimate son to a Spanish gentlemen and a freed slave from Panama, of African or possibly Native American descent. At a young age, Martin's father abandoned him, his mother and his...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Reading 1, Wisdom 2:23-3:9 23 For God created human beings to be immortal, he made them as an image of his own nature;24 Death came into the world only through the Devil's envy, as those who belong to him find to their cost.1 But the souls of the upright are in the...
Daily Readings for Monday, November 10, 2025
Reading 1, Wisdom 1:1-7 1 Love uprightness you who are rulers on earth, be properly disposed towards the Lord and seek him in simplicity of heart;2 for he will be found by those who do not put him to the test, revealing himself to those who do not mistrust him.3...
Daily Readings for Sunday, November 09, 2025
Daily Reading for Sunday November 9, 2025 Reading 1, Genesis 28:11-18Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 84:3, 4, 5-6, 8, 11Gospel, Luke 19:1-10Reading 2, First Corinthians 3:9-13, 16-17 Printable PDF of Today's Reading Past / Future Daily Readings Reading 1, Genesis 28:11-18...
Daily Readings for Saturday, November 08, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 16:3-9, 16, 22-27 3 My greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus,4 who risked their own necks to save my life; to them, thanks not only from me, but from all the churches among the gentiles;5 and my greetings to the church at...
Daily Readings for Friday, November 07, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 15:14-21 14 My brothers, I am quite sure that you, in particular, are full of goodness, fully instructed and capable of correcting each other.15 But I have special confidence in writing on some points to you, to refresh your memories, because of the...
Daily Readings for Thursday, November 06, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 14:7-12 7 For none of us lives for himself and none of us dies for himself;8 while we are alive, we are living for the Lord, and when we die, we die for the Lord: and so, alive or dead, we belong to the Lord.9 It was for this purpose that Christ both...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, November 05, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 13:8-10 8 The only thing you should owe to anyone is love for one another, for to love the other person is to fulfil the law.9 All these: You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet, and all the other...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, November 04, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 12:5-16 5 in the same way, all of us, though there are so many of us, make up one body in Christ, and as different parts we are all joined to one another.6 Then since the gifts that we have differ according to the grace that was given to each of us:...
Daily Readings for Monday, November 03, 2025
Reading 1, Romans 11:29-36 29 There is no change of mind on God's part about the gifts he has made or of his choice.30 Just as you were in the past disobedient to God but now you have been shown mercy, through their disobedience;31 so in the same way they are...
Daily Readings for Sunday, November 02, 2025
Daily Reading for Sunday November 2, 2025 Reading 1, Wisdom 3:1-9Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 27:1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 13-14Gospel, Matthew 25:31-46Reading 2, Romans 6:3-9 Printable PDF of Today's Reading Past / Future Daily Readings Reading 1, Wisdom 3:1-9 1 But the souls of...