Current Events and News
From the Diocese
Lenten Spiritual Opportunities
Various parishes in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown are sponsoring spiritual enrichment opportunities during the Lenten season. Novena to Saint Anthony of PaduaSaint Francis of Assisi Parish in JohnstownTuesdays in LentNovena prayed after 6:30 p.m. Mass Holy...
Memory Walk in Honor of Sister Margie
By Tony DeGolProclaim! Carol Babinsack sums it up well when she says that the late Sister Margie Monahan was a cherished friend to many people. “She was always there,” pointed out Babinsack, a member of Saint Stephen Parish in McConnellsburg. “She was willing to help....
March For Life 2020
Groups from throughout the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown traveled to Washington, D.C., on January 24 for the March for Life. Bishop Mark traveled by bus with a group from the Altoona area organized by the Blair County chapter of Citizens Concerned for Human Life. In...
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...
Saint of the Day
St. Lawrence of Brindisi: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Caesare de Rossi was born at Brandisi, kingdom of Naples, on July 22nd. He was educated by the conventual Franciscans there and by his uncle at St. Mark's in Venice. When sixteen, he joined the Capuchins at Verona, taking the name Lawrence. He pursued his higher...
St. Margaret of Antioch: Saint of the Day for Monday, July 20, 2026
Nothing certain is known of her, but according to her untrustworthy legend, she was the daughter of a pagan priest at Antioch in Pisidia. Also known as Marina, she was converted to Christianity, whereupon she was driven from home by her father. She became a...
St. Arsenius the Great: Saint of the Day for Sunday, July 19, 2026
Confessor and hermit on the Nile. Arsenius, who was born in Rome in 354, was the tutor of the children of Emperors Theodosius I the Great, Arcadius, and Honorius. At that time, Arsenius was a Roman deacon recommended for the office by Pope St. Damasus. lie served at...
St. Frederick: Saint of the Day for Saturday, July 18, 2026
St. Frederick, Bishop of Utrecht, Martyr Frederick was trained in piety and sacred learning among the clergy of the Church of Utrecht. Being ordained priest, he was charged by Bishop Ricfried with the care of instructing converts, and about 825 he was chosen to...
Carmelite Nuns of Compiegne: Saint of the Day for Friday, July 17, 2026
Sixteen Carmelites caught up in the French Revolution and martyred. When the revolution started in 1789, a group of twenty-one discalced Carmelites lived in a monastery in Compiegne France, founded in 1641. The monastery was ordered closed in 1790 by the Revolutionary...
St. Carmen: Saint of the Day for Thursday, July 16, 2026
According to my resources, the name Carmen is a derivation of Carmel which is one of the titles given to Our Blessed Mother, namely, Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This is the patronal feast of the Carmelites. The Order of Carmelites takes its name from Mount Carmel, which...
St. Bonaventure: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, July 15, 2026
St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Feast day-July 15) St. Bonaventure, known as "the seraphic doctor," was born at Bagnoregio, in the Lazio region of central Italy, in 1221. He received the name of Bonaventure in consequence of an exclamation of St....
St. Kateri Tekakwitha: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, July 14, 2026
St. Kateri Tekakwitha is the first Native American to be recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. She was born in 1656, in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon. Her mother was an Algonquin, who was captured by the Mohawks and who took a Mohawk chief for her husband....
St. Henry: Saint of the Day for Monday, July 13, 2026
St. Henry, son of Henry, Duke of Bavaria, and of Gisella, daughter of Conrad, King of Burgundy, was born in 972. He received an excellent education under the care of St. Wolfgang, Bishop of Ratisbon. In 995, St. Henry succeeded his father as Duke of Bavaria, and in...
St. John Gaulbert, Abbot: Saint of the Day for Sunday, July 12, 2026
Saint John Gaulbert, Abbot - Feast day is July 12th The city of Florence gave to the world Saint John Gaulbert. Although he enjoyed the benefits of an early Christian education, his youthful heart was soon attracted to the vanities of the world. A painful incident was...
Daily Reading
Daily Readings for Tuesday, July 21, 2026
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 Monday, July 20, 2026
Reading 1, Micah 6:1-4, 6-8 1 Now listen to what Yahweh says: 'Stand up, state your case to the mountains and let the hills hear what you have to say!'2 Listen, mountains, to the case as Yahweh puts it, give ear, you foundations of the earth, for Yahweh has a case...
Daily Readings for Sunday, July 19, 2026
Reading 1, Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 13 For there is no god, other than you, who cares for every one, to whom you have to prove that your sentences have been just.16 For your strength is the basis of your saving justice, and your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to...
Daily Readings for Saturday, July 18, 2026
Reading 1, Micah 2:1-5 1 Disaster for those who plot evil, who lie in bed planning mischief! No sooner is it dawn than they do it, since they have the power to do so.2 Seizing the fields that they covet, they take over houses as well, owner and house they seize alike,...
Daily Readings for Friday, July 17, 2026
Reading 1, Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8 1 About then, Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, 'Yahweh says this, "Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you will not live." '2 Hezekiah turned his...
Daily Readings for Thursday, July 16, 2026
Reading 1, Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19 7 The path of the Upright One is honesty; you smooth the honest way of the upright.8 Following the path of your judgements, Yahweh, we set our hopes in you, your name, your memory are all our soul desires.9 At night my soul longs...
Daily Readings for Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Reading 1, Isaiah 10:5-7, 13-16 5 Woe to Assyria, rod of my anger, the club in their hands is my fury!6 I was sending him against a godless nation, commissioning him against the people who enraged me, to pillage and plunder at will and trample on them like the mud in...
Daily Readings for Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Reading 1, Isaiah 7:1-9 1 In the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah king of Judah, Razon king of Aram advanced on Jerusalem with Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, to attack it; but he was unable to attack it.2 The House of David was informed: 'Aram has...
Daily Readings for Monday, July 13, 2026
Reading 1, Isaiah 1:10-17 10 Hear what Yahweh says, you rulers of Sodom; listen to what our God teaches, you people of Gomorrah.11 'What are your endless sacrifices to me?' says Yahweh. 'I am sick of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of calves. I take no pleasure in...
Daily Readings for Sunday, July 12, 2026
Reading 1, Isaiah 55:10-11 10 For, as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return before having watered the earth, fertilising it and making it germinate to provide seed for the sower and food to eat,11 so it is with the word that goes from my...