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. John of Kanty: Saint of the Day for Monday, December 23, 2024
The people of Olkusz in Bohemia in 1431 had every reason to be suspicious of their new pastor. They knew what a Cracow professor would think of their small rural town. But even more insulting, their town was once again being used as a dumping ground for a priest who...
St. Chaeromon: Saint of the Day for Sunday, December 22, 2024
Bishop of Nilopolis, in Egypt. When the persecution was instituted by Emperor Trajanus Decius, Chaeromon Was quite elderly. He and several companions fled into the Arabian desert and were never seen again. The bishop and his companions are listed as martyrs. Excellent...
St. Peter Canisius: Saint of the Day for Saturday, December 21, 2024
In 1565, the Vatican was looking for a secret agent. It was shortly after the Council of Trent and the pope wanted to get the decrees of the Council to all the European bishops. What would be a simple errand in our day, was a dangerous assignment in the sixteenth...
St. Dominic of Silos: Saint of the Day for Friday, December 20, 2024
Benedictine abbot and defender of the faith. Born in Canas, Navarre, Spain, circa 1000, he entered the Benedictines at San Millan de Ia Cogolla. King Garcia III of Navarre challenged him when he became abbot of the monastery, and Dominic refused to surrender part of...
St. Nemesius: Saint of the Day for Thursday, December 19, 2024
Martyr of Egypt. He was burned alive in Alexandria, Egypt, during the persecutions under Emperor Trajanus Decius. Nemesius was arrested and scourged and then burned to death. Like Christ, he was executed between two criminals. Excellent content provided by...
St. Rufus: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Rufus and Zosimus were citizens of Antioch (or perhaps Philippi) who were brought to Rome with St. Ignatius of Antioch during the reign of Emperor Trajan. They were condemned to death for their Christianity and thrown to wild beasts in the arena two days before the...
St. Olympias: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Olympias born into a wealthy noble Constantinople family. She was orphaned when a child and was given over to the care of Theodosia by her uncle, the prefect Procopius. She married Nebridius, also a prefect, was widowed soon after, refused several offers of marriage,...
St. Ado of Vienne: Saint of the Day for Monday, December 16, 2024
An archbishop and scholar, Ado was born in Sens and educated at the Benedictine abbey of Ferrieres. Abbot Lupus Servatus, an outstanding humanist of the time, trained Ado, and was impressed with the obvious holiness of the young man. A noble by birth, Ado renounced...
St. Mary Di Rosa: Saint of the Day for Sunday, December 15, 2024
Saint Mary (Paula) Di Rosa December 15 The pounding on the barricaded door of the military hospital sent every heart thudding in terror. In the middle of the war in Brescia (Italy) in 1848, the wounded, sick, and those who cared for them knew what that pounding meant....
St. John of the Cross: Saint of the Day for Saturday, December 14, 2024
Saint John of the Cross was born Juan de Yepes y Alvarez, in Fontiveros, Avila, Spain in 1542. His father was employed by wealthy family members as an accountant, but they disowned him when he married a poor woman from the lower class. As a result of his familyÂ?s...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Friday, January 10, 2025
Reading 1, First John 5:5-13 5 Who can overcome the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?6 He it is who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with water alone but with water and blood, and it is the Spirit that bears witness, for the Spirit...
Daily Readings for Thursday, January 09, 2025
Reading 1, First John 4:19-5:4 19 Let us love, then, because he first loved us.20 Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen.21 Indeed this is the...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, January 08, 2025
Reading 1, First John 4:11-18 11 My dear friends, if God loved us so much, we too should love one another.12 No one has ever seen God, but as long as we love one another God remains in us and his love comes to its perfection in us.13 This is the proof that we remain...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, January 07, 2025
Reading 1, First John 4:7-10 7 My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.8 Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love.9 This is the revelation of God's love for us, that...
Daily Readings for Monday, January 06, 2025
Reading 1, First John 3:22-4:6 22 and whatever we ask we shall receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what is acceptable to him.23 His commandment is this, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we should love one...
Daily Readings for Sunday, January 05, 2025
Reading 1, Isaiah 60:1-6 1 Arise, shine out, for your light has come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen on you.2 Look! though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples, on you Yahweh is rising and over you his glory can be seen.3 The nations will come to...
Daily Readings for Saturday, January 04, 2025
Reading 1, First John 3:7-10 7 Children, do not let anyone lead you astray. Whoever acts uprightly is upright, just as he is upright.8 Whoever lives sinfully belongs to the devil, since the devil has been a sinner from the beginning. This was the purpose of the...
Daily Readings for Friday, January 03, 2025
Reading 1, First John 2:29-3:6 29 If you know that he is upright you must recognise that everyone whose life is upright is a child of his.1 You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children -- which is what we are! The...
Daily Readings for Thursday, January 02, 2025
Reading 1, First John 2:22-28 22 Who is the liar, if not one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the Antichrist, who denies both the Father and the Son.23 Whoever denies the Son cannot have the Father either; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, January 01, 2025
Reading 1, Numbers 6:22-27 22 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,23 'Speak to Aaron and his sons and say: "This is how you must bless the Israelites. You will say:24 May Yahweh bless you and keep you.25 May Yahweh let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.26 May...