Organization in the Austin Catholic parishes will be going through some changes after July 1.

Father Paul Nelson retires from St. Augustine's on that date, and with no replacement coming, the duties there will have to be shifted to meet the congregation's needs.

Also facing changes are St. Edward's in Austin, St. Aidan's in Ellendale and Holy Trinity in Litomysl.

Father Joseph Fogal is the current pastor at those three churches. When Nelson leaves his position, Fogal will take over at St. Augustine's and a new priest will serve at St. Aidan's and Holy Trinity. The change for Austin, from three priests to two, will be an adjustment for Fogal.

"This year it's a little different from the normal transition a pastor makes," Fogal said.

A good difference is that he will not be an entirely new face to parishioners in the church, having spent time acquainting himself with the people and programs at St. Augustine's.

One of the main challenges will be for people now used to their own priest having to share programs and time.

Fogal is used to combining programs and said it should be fine. His current duties include coordinating programs between his parishes for the sick and homebound. Also, mass for holy days of obligation, confirmation and communal penance rotate between the churches.

"We've had some really good experience with that," Fogal said. "More and more down the road we plan to share some of those ministries."

Church councils will also be combined and the money for parishes will be shared, Fogal said.

Mass times at St. Augustine's and St. Edward's will change the first week of July. St. Edward's will lose their Saturday evening mass, and at both churches mass times will be shifted.

Under the Winona Diocese's "clustering plan," Bishop Bernard Harrington has designated groups of parishes under the direction of one priest.

There are 51 clusters in the diocese, created in response to a slowly dwindling number of priests.

"There was always a hope when we started this in 2001 that we'd get more people into the seminaries," Fogal said.

Father William Becker at Queen of Angels and Brownsdale said with five parishes in the diocese closing this year and six or seven active priests over the retirement age of 68, Harrington is looking at more options, one of which would stretch the retirement age to 70.

There actually was a slight increase last year in students going to the seminary, he said, but they can not be ordained for a few years.

Becker has experience coordinating activities as well and said Austin will be fine with two priests.

"There will be a learning curve, but I think it will be smooth in the long-term," he said.

He said priests often use each other's experience to help in situations like this.

"There are other towns that have done the sort of coupling of programs that we're doing, and are actually further ahead of us in some ways," Becker said. "So we have models to learn from."