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ATTLEBORO - Two iconic Catholic parishes in Attleboro are merging their administration and will share a single priest, another sign of the dwindling ranks of priests in the Fall River Diocese.

One priest will serve both St. Joseph's Church on South Main Street and Holy Ghost Church on Linden Street starting June 24.

A similar move occurred several years ago in North Attleboro, when the Rev. David Costa was assigned as priest for both Sacred Heart and St. Mary's churches.

In Attleboro, the Rev. John Murray, 37, will take over duties at St. Joseph's and Holy Ghost, which largely serve Portuguese and Hispanic parishioners.

Parishioners were notified of the change in a letter from Bishop George Coleman after Masses last weekend at both churches, diocese spokesman John Kearns said. "At this time both parishes will be maintained as separate communities, though it is anticipated that Father Murray will seek to identify areas in which there can be sharing between the two," Coleman's letter stated. "I know that this will be a time of change and transition for you.

"One of the changes concerns the parishes' Mass schedules. Since the two parishes will share one paster, a revised Mass schedule will be effective beginning June 25th."

That and other changes within the diocese are scheduled to be announced in today's edition of The Anchor.

Since 2000, priests serving at St. Joseph's have been provided through the Priestly Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo, an order of missionaries founded in the 1980s, Kearns said.

Coleman was notified in February that those priests would be transferred to duties outside of the diocese at the end of June.

Each spring, the bishop meets with the priest personnel board to review changes, including retirements and transfers, which take place in June, Kearns said.

"Like most dioceses in the country, we have fewer priests," he said.

There are 112 active priests in the Fall River Diocese serving 91 parishes. That's down from 30 years ago, when the diocese celebrated its 75th anniversary and there were 187 active priests.

In 10 years, the diocese is projecting there will be just 60 priests under the age of 70.

"Certainly those changes are compelling how priests are assigned," Kearns said. The Rev. John Raposo, currently at Holy Ghost Church, will become chaplain at the Catholic Memorial Home in Fall River, taking over for a priest who is entering retirement.

Falling numbers of parishioners are also pushing the changes.

In 2008, Holy Ghost - established in 1921 - served 553 households with an average of 266 people attending weekend masses.

At St. Joseph's - established in 1904 to serve a growing French-Canadian population - an average of 539 people attended weekend masses in 2008.

Leading the tow parishes will be Murray's first pastorate. He has been serving as an assistant pastor at St. Pious X parish in South Yarmouth.

Kearns said the diocese plans to provide priests to conduct Masses in Portuguese at Holy Ghost and Spanish at St. Joseph's.

A study released earlier this year, found that New England's Catholic population has plunged since 1990 - a period that coincides with, first the rumble, then the avalanche of the church sex abuse scandal.

Local observers and researchers who tracked the steep slide said shifting demographics and disenchantment with Catholic leadership were also decisive factors.

Catholics totaled half of New England's population in 1990, but fell to 36 percent by 2008, according to the American Religious Identification Survey released in March by Trinity College in Hartford.

The survey linked immigration and an increase among Latinos replacing the Irish for a shift of the Catholic population away from the northeastern United States, toward the Southwest.

Kearns said another geographic shift occurred locally over time, in which Northern Bristol County and the Cape grew, while the general population and the number of Catholics in cities like Fall River and New Bedford fell.

That has led to some church closings, the merging of some parishes and priests being assigned to more than one church.