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. Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo: Saint of the Day for Sunday, March 23, 2025
Bishop and defender of the rights of the native Indians in Peru, Born in Mayorga, Spain, he studied law and became a lawyer and then professor at Salamanca, receiving appointment-despite being a layman-as chief judge of the court of Inquisition at Granada under King...
St. Lea: Saint of the Day for Saturday, March 22, 2025
A letter which St. Jerome wrote to St. Marcella provides the only information we have about St. Lea, a devout fourth century widow. Upon the death of her husband, she retired to a Roman monastery and ultimately became its Superior. Since his correspondence was...
St. Enda: Saint of the Day for Friday, March 21, 2025
Legend has him an Irishman noted for his military feats who was convinced by his sister St. Fanchea to renounce his warring activities and marry. When he found his fiancee dead, he decided to become a monk and went on pilgrimage to Rome, where he was ordained. He...
Bl. John of Parma: Saint of the Day for Thursday, March 20, 2025
John Buralli, the seventh minister general of the Franciscans, was born at Parma in the year 1209, and he was already teaching logic there when at the age of twenty-five, he joined the Franciscans. He was sent to Paris to study and, after he had been ordained, to...
St. Joseph: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Everything we know about the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus comes from Scripture and that has seemed too little for those who made up legends about him. We know he was a carpenter, a working man, for the skeptical Nazarenes ask about Jesus, "Is this...
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, March 18, 2025
"Make your fold with the sheep; flee from the wolves: depart not from the Church," Cyril admonished catechumens surrounded by heresy. These were prophetic words for Cyril was to be hounded by enemies and heretics for most of his life, and although they could exile him...
St. Patrick: Saint of the Day for Monday, March 17, 2025
St. Patrick of Ireland is one of the world's most popular saints. He was born in Roman Britain and when he was fourteen or so, he was captured by Irish pirates during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. At the time, Ireland was a...
St. Abban: Saint of the Day for Sunday, March 16, 2025
Abbot and Irish missionary. An Irish prince, Abban was the son of King Cormac of Leinster. He is listed as the nephew of St. Ibar. Abban founded many churches in the old district of Ui Cennselaigh, in modern County Wexford and Ferns. His main monastery is...
St. Matilda: Saint of the Day for Friday, March 14, 2025
Matilda was the daughter of Count Dietrich of Westphalia and Reinhild of Denmark. She was also known as Mechtildis and Maud. She was raised by her grandmother, the Abbess of Eufurt convent. Matilda married Henry the Fowler, son of Duke Otto of Saxony, in the year 909....
Bl. Agnello of Pisa: Saint of the Day for Thursday, March 13, 2025
The founder of the English Franciscan province, Blessed Agnello, was admitted into the Order by St. Francis himself on the occasion of his sojourn in Pisa. He was sent to the Friary in Paris, of which he became the guardian, and in 1224, St. Francis appointed him to...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Sunday, March 23, 2025
Daily Reading for Sunday March 23, 2025 Reading 1, Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11Gospel, Luke 13:1-9Reading 2, First Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12 Printable PDF of Today's Reading Past / Future Daily Readings Reading 1, Exodus...
Daily Readings for Saturday, March 22, 2025
Reading 1, Micah 7:14-15, 18-20 14 With shepherd's crook lead your people to pasture, the flock that is your heritage, living confined in a forest with meadow land all round. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old!15 As in the days when you came out...
Daily Readings for Friday, March 21, 2025
Reading 1, Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-18 3 Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons, for he was the son of his old age, and he had a decorated tunic made for him.4 But his brothers, seeing how much more his father loved him than all his other sons, came to hate...
Daily Readings for Thursday, March 20, 2025
Reading 1, Jeremiah 17:5-10 5 Yahweh says this, 'Accursed be anyone who trusts in human beings, who relies on human strength and whose heart turns from Yahweh.6 Such a person is like scrub in the wastelands: when good comes, it does not affect him since he lives in...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Daily Reading for Wednesday March 19, 2025 Reading 1, Second Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29Gospel, Luke 2:41-51Reading 2, Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22 Printable PDF of Today's Reading Past / Future Daily Readings Reading 1, Second...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Reading 1, Isaiah 1:10, 16-20 10 Hear what Yahweh says, you rulers of Sodom; listen to what our God teaches, you people of Gomorrah.16 wash, make yourselves clean. Take your wrong-doing out of my sight. Cease doing evil.17 Learn to do good, search for justice,...
Daily Readings for Monday, March 17, 2025
Reading 1, Daniel 9:4-10 4 I pleaded with Yahweh my God and made this confession: 'O my Lord, God great and to be feared, you keep the covenant and show faithful love towards those who love you and who observe your commandments:5 we have sinned, we have done wrong, we...
Daily Readings for Sunday, March 16, 2025
Reading 1, Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 5 Then taking him outside, he said, 'Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Just so will your descendants be,' he told him.6 Abram put his faith in Yahweh and this was reckoned to him as uprightness.7 He then said to him,...
Daily Readings for Saturday, March 15, 2025
Reading 1, Deuteronomy 26:16-19 16 'Yahweh your God commands you today to observe these laws and customs; you must keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.17 'Today you have obtained this declaration from Yahweh: that he will be your God, but...
Daily Readings for Friday, March 14, 2025
Reading 1, Ezekiel 18:21-28 21 'If the wicked, however, renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is law-abiding and upright, he will most certainly live; he will not die.22 None of the crimes he committed will be remembered against him from then...