Current Events and News
From the Diocese
Bishop Suspends Precious Blood During Flu Season
Bishop Mark L. Bartchak has directed that the Precious Blood not be distributed in any form at Mass beginning the weekend of January 11 and 12, 2020, and continuing until further notice. The directive is due to the severity of the flu season. It is the belief of the...
Answers to Your Questions about Our Response to the Victims of Sexual Abuse
The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has released a financial summary of the costs related to clergy sexual abuse from July 1, 1999, to December 1, 2018. The summary is included in the December 10, 2018, edition of the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Register. It is...
Independent Oversight Board Report
The Independent Oversight Board for Youth Protection of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has issued its first Annual Report on reforms developed and implemented by the Diocese for the protection of children and youth, concluding that “much has been done, but much is...
Victim Assistance
For almost two decades, the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has been committed to providing pastoral care and financial support to the victims and survivors of sexual abuse. The diocese began a Victim Assistance Program in 1999, and, since that time, assistance in the...
Independent Oversight Board
Bishop Mark Bartchak and Acting United States Attorney Soo Song have announced the names of the individuals appointed to the Independent Oversight Board for Youth Protection for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Click below for the media advisory from the Department...
Review Board
Bishop Mark Bartchak has announced the appointment of an entirely new membership for the Diocesan Review Board, which assists in the assessment of allegations of sexual abuse of minors and a cleric’s suitability for ministry. The new members are: Rev. Leo ArnoneJoyce...
Reforms to Protect Children
On March 6, 2017, Bishop Mark L. Bartchak and Acting United States Attorney Soo C. Song announced reforms by the Diocese to protect children from sexual abuse, ensure that all allegations of sexual abuse are immediately reported to law enforcement, and provide victims...
Support for Survivors of Sexual Abuse
The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown is partnering with state and local agencies to offer support to survivors of sexual abuse. Resources and educational information will be featured regularly in the Diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Register, and on the Diocesan...
Saint of the Day
St. Valerian: Saint of the Day for Monday, September 15, 2025
The massacre of the martyrs of Lyons with their bishop, St. Pothinus, took place during the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius in the year 177. Marcellus, a priest, we are told, by Divine intervention, managed to escape to Chalon-sur-Saone, where he was given shelter....
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...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Monday, September 15, 2025
Reading 1, Hebrews 5:7-9 7 During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, with loud cries and with tears, to the one who had the power to save him from death, and, winning a hearing by his reverence,8 he learnt obedience, Son though he was, through his...
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...