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. Saturninus: Saint of the Day for Saturday, November 29, 2025
St. Saturninus Bishop of Toulouse and Martyr November 29 A.D. 257 St. Saturninus went from Rome by the direction of pope Fabian, about the year 245, to preach the faith in Gaul, where St. Trophimus, the first bishop of Arles, had some time before gathered a plentiful...
St. Catherine Laboure: Saint of the Day for Friday, November 28, 2025
St. Catherine Labour�© was born in France on May 2, 1806 as the ninth of 11 children to Pierre and Madeleine Labour�©. In 1815, Catherine's mother passed away, leaving her 9-year-old daughter with the responsibility of caring for the household. After her mother's...
St. James Intercisus: Saint of the Day for Thursday, November 27, 2025
James was a favorite of King Yezdigerd I of Persia and a Christian. He abandoned his religion when Yesdigerd launched a persecution of the Christians. When the king died, James repented of his apostasy and declared himself to be a Christian to the new king, Bahram....
St. John Berchmans: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Eldest son of a shoemaker, John was born at Diest, Brabant. He early wanted to be a priest, and when thirteen became a servant in the household of one of the Cathedral canons at Malines, John Froymont. In 1615, he entered the newly founded Jesuit College at Malines,...
St. Catherine of Alexandria: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Saint Catherine of Alexandria is a canonized saint in the Catholic Church who, per Christian tradition, was martyred around 305 in Alexandria, Egypt. Of course, the Church of the first Millennium was undivided. She is also recognized as the Great Martyr and Saint by...
St. Andrew Dung Lac: Saint of the Day for Monday, November 24, 2025
Through the missionary efforts of various religious families beginning in the sixteenth century and continuing until 1866, the Vietnamese people heard the message of the gospel, and many accepted it despite persecution and even death. On June 19, 1988, Pope John Paul...
Bl. Miguel Pro: Saint of the Day for Sunday, November 23, 2025
Born on January 13, 1891 in Guadalupe, Mexico, Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez was the eldest son of Miguel Pro and Josefa Juarez. Miguelito, as his doting family called him, was, from an early age, intensely spiritual and equally intense in hi mischievousness, frequently...
St. Cecilia: Saint of the Day for Saturday, November 22, 2025
In the fourth century a Greek religious romance on the Loves of Cecilia and Valerian was written in glorification of virginal life with the purpose of taking the place of then-popular sensual romances. Consequently, until better evidence is produced, we must conclude...
St. Gelasius: Saint of the Day for Friday, November 21, 2025
St. Gelasius I, Pope (Feast day - November 21) Gelasius was born in Rome, in the fifth century, the son of an African named Valerius. Later, ordained a priest, he was elected Pope on March 1st, 492. Gelasius had a reputation for learning, justice, holiness, and...
St. Edmund Rich: Saint of the Day for Thursday, November 20, 2025
Archbishop of Canterbury England, who battled for discipline and justice, also called Edmund of Abingdon. Born in Abingdon, on November 30, 1180. he studied at Oxford, England, and in Paris, France. He taught art and mathematics at Oxford and was ordained. He spent...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Saturday, November 29, 2025
Reading 1, Daniel 7:15-27 15 'I, Daniel, was deeply disturbed and the visions that passed through my head alarmed me.16 So I approached one of those who were standing by and asked him about all this. And in reply he revealed to me what these things meant.17 "These...
Daily Readings for Friday, November 28, 2025
Reading 1, Daniel 7:2-14 2 Daniel said, 'I have been seeing visions in the night. I saw that the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea;3 four great beasts emerged from the sea, each different from the others.4 The first was like a lion with eagle's wings...
Daily Readings for Thursday, November 27, 2025
Reading 1, Daniel 6:12-28 12 These men came along in a body and found Daniel praying and pleading with God.13 They then went to the king and reminded him of the royal edict, 'Have you not signed an edict forbidding anyone for the next thirty days to pray to anyone,...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Reading 1, Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28 1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for his noblemen, a thousand of them, and, in the presence of this thousand, he drank his wine.2 Having tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave orders for the gold and silver vessels to be...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Reading 1, Daniel 2:31-45 31 'You have had a vision, Your Majesty; this is what you saw: a statue, a great statue of extreme brightness, stood before you, terrible to see.32 The head of this statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and...
Daily Readings for Monday, November 24, 2025
Reading 1, Wisdom 3:1-9 1 But the souls of the upright are in the hands of God, and no torment can touch them.2 To the unenlightened, they appeared to die, their departure was regarded as disaster,3 their leaving us like annihilation; but they are at peace.4 If, as it...
Daily Readings for Sunday, November 23, 2025
Reading 1, Second Samuel 5:1-3 1 All the tribes of Israel then came to David at Hebron and said, 'Look, we are your own flesh and bone.2 In days past when Saul was our king, it was you who led Israel on its campaigns, and to you it was that Yahweh promised, "You are...
Daily Readings for Saturday, November 22, 2025
Reading 1, First Maccabees 6:1-13 1 King Antiochus, meanwhile, was making his way through the Upper Provinces; he had heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais, renowned for its riches, its silver and gold,2 and its very wealthy temple containing golden...
Daily Readings for Friday, November 21, 2025
Reading 1, First Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59 36 Judas and his brothers then said, 'Now that our enemies have been defeated, let us go up to purify the sanctuary and dedicate it.'37 So they marshalled the whole army, and went up to Mount Zion.52 On the twenty-fifth of the...
Daily Readings for Thursday, November 20, 2025
Reading 1, First Maccabees 2:15-29 15 The king's commissioners who were enforcing the apostasy came to the town of Modein for the sacrifices.16 Many Israelites gathered round them, but Mattathias and his sons drew apart.17 The king's commissioners then addressed...