Three Catholic churches in Concord will eventually merge into a single parish, according to a new recommendation accepted by Bishop John McCormack.

Sacred Heart Church, St. John the Evangelist and St. Peter's Church will be joined under one pastor and one assistant pastor. A timeline for the merger has not yet been set.

"The purpose of the planning process is to have something in place so when the bishop does need to act he's already heard from the people so he has a direction in mind," said Patrick McGee, spokesman for the Diocese of Manchester, which oversees New Hampshire's Catholic churches.

Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Heights, which was also part of the discussions, will remain its own parish for now. But a letter from the diocese to parishioners made clear that Immaculate Heart of Mary could eventually be part of other changes involving churches in the Pittsfield, Northwood, Epsom and Barrington areas. Immaculate Conception Church of Penacook also will not be affected at this point but could be involved in future discussions.

"One of the things we're trying to accomplish in the pastoral planning process is to allow room for future changes and future accommodations to meet the needs of parishioners and members of the church," McGee said. "Looking ahead, we don't know what the demographics will be in the coming years."

The planned merger is the result of a discussion process that started in May 2006 as a way to deal with the declining number of priests locally and nationally. Currently, the Concord churches have four priests, but the diocese predicts that by 2012 there will only be three priests available.

The diocese has not determined what will happen to the church buildings. At the beginning, it is likely that all three churches will keep their facilities as local church leadership considers the next step.

"One of the things the new pastor will have to look at is A, can we afford to keep all these buildings? And if we keep them, what will we use them for?" said Esther Crowley, a St. Peter's member who was on the task force making the recommendation.

The final recommendation to merge the three parishes was the result of many months of meetings and discussions with the diocese, Crowley said. An original proposal involved Northfield and Pittsfield, but it was rejected by the diocese because the plan required more pastors than were available.

More recently, the committee deadlocked on whether to include Immaculate Heart of Mary in the merger. According to Crowley, some members wanted to unite the entire Concord community by combining all four churches with one pastor and two associate pastors. Others thought Immaculate Heart of Mary was far enough away geographically that it should not be included. Sacred Heart, St. John the Evangelist and St. Peter's are all within about a mile of one another, near the downtown area. Immaculate Heart of Mary is in the Heights, across the Merrimack River from the others.

Some also thought that Immaculate Heart of Mary, with 1,000 families, was too big to join with St. John, which has 2,500 families. The other churches are smaller - St. Peter's has 650 families, and Sacred Heart has 350.

Ultimately, the task force, which included two members and the priest from each of the local churches, presented both ideas to the bishop, who chose to keep Immaculate Heart of Mary separate.

Crowley said she thinks the merger makes sense from both a geographical and a historical perspective. Originally, she said, Sacred Heart was a predominantly French Canadian parish, while St Peter's was predominantly Italian and Irish. But over the years, the ethnic identities have faded and the populations of the churches have become more similar.

Parishioner Julia Kenney said it is common for people who go to daily Mass to rotate among all three churches, since they are so close to one another geographically. Rituals such as Mass and the sacraments are celebrated the same way at every Catholic church.

"All the parishes are loving, and they'll accept (the change)," Kenney said.

Kathy Planchet, secretary and bookkeeper at Sacred Heart, said Sacred Heart and St. Peter's already share a lot. Two years ago, the churches were "twinned," which means they share a priest and an assistant priest but keep independent business offices. Committees dealing with outreach to the poor and with social issues, such as abortion and euthanasia, already include members from both parishes. When they started sharing a priest, the Mass schedules were changed to complement each other so that if only one priest is available, he can cover all the Masses.

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