Parishioners of four Roman Catholic Churches learned Sunday that a proposal submitted to the bishop for merging the parishes has been approved.

What that means, however, isn’t clear to everyone who attends Our Lady of the Snows in Bethel, St. Athanasius and St. John in Rumford, St. Theresa’s in Mexico, and St. Joseph Mission in Dixfield. The cluster also includes the seasonal St. Mary’s at Roxbury Pond.

Roman Catholic parishes across the state have been submitting proposals to Bishop Richard J. Malone of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland that would streamline the way Masses are celebrated.

The Rumford area group is called Cluster 18.

John Madigan, group facilitator and a St. Athanasius and St. John parishioner, said on Tuesday that the accepted proposal means one parish will be formed while multiple worship sites will be maintained.

A transition team will be appointed by the Rev. Angelo LeVasseur, pastor of the churches, sometime next month. LeVasseur has been on leave and is expected to return within the next few weeks.

Becoming one parish means combining parish councils, staffs and finance committees and coming up with a new name.

According to Malone’s letter, the merger is encouraged to be in place by July 2007. He also urged an analysis of the churches’ financial situations prior to the establishment of a transition committee. That committee would comprise parishioners from each of the merging churches.

A transition committee would implement the cluster’s proposal and well as devise ways to address financial challenges, according to the bishop’s letter.

Madigan said he doesn’t believe any of the churches will close right now.

Anna Justard, a member of the cluster committee and a parishioner of St. Athanasius and St. John Church, isn’t so sure.

“People will all fit in St. Athanasius and St. John Church. This will happen eventually. There’s a lot of area to cover for Father Angelo,” she said.

LeVasseur and Deacon Rod Berger are responsible for ministering to 1,450 families in the area. Berger is leaving next month.

Justard said she’s seen the number of priests dwindle and has already experienced one merger more than 30 years ago when St. Athanasius Church combined with St. John’s Church. Both churches were in Rumford.

“I joined and took part in everything going on. You need to be a part of the church, that makes you part of it,” she said.

She said LeVasseur is serving one of the few areas in the state that has just one priest.

“He’s all alone up here,” she said. “The biggest problem is the finances; except for Bethel, we’ve been struggling.”

Rosemary McLean, a full-time parishioner at Our Lady of the Snows for 14 years, said the realignment of churches and which would stay open has not been determined. That, she said, is the task of the transition team.

She declined to speculate on which church Bethel parishioners would attend if their church closes. She said it’s equidistant between St. Athanasius and St. John in Rumford and St. Catherine’s in Norway.

Jennie Richards, a parishioner of St. Theresa’s Church in Mexico, also declined to speculate on the future.

She said she believes some people are a bit confused by the bishop’s letter when it speaks of a merger. She said several people plan to further investigate the meaning of the letter so that people will understand the intent.

Also, according to a news release issued by the diocese on Monday, any of the cluster’s buildings, including two rectories and two convents, that are not used to their full potential in the year 2010, would be proposed for sale.

The mission churches in Roxbury Pond and Dixfield will continue to operate in the summer. Madigan said the Dixfield church will celebrate its last Mass of the season on Oct. 29, and the Roxbury church is open only in July.