The director of the Catholic Communications Office, Mr Martin Long, has said that clustering of parishes was becoming a growing phenomenon in rural parts of Ireland's 26 Catholic dioceses.
"Individual dioceses are moving in this direction,involving consultation between clergy and people at local level," he said.
In general this was happening in response to falling numbers of priests and low attendance at Masses.
Mr Long was responding to developments in Tuam archdiocese where plans are being prepared to close churches there over the next decade, particularly in rural areas.
The secretary of the archdiocese, Father Brendan Kilcoyne, also said that just two men from there were currently studying for the priesthood, the lowest figure for Tuam since the mid-19th century.
In recent years falling vocations had led to a reduction in the number of Masses in many parishes and in some rural towns in the diocese, he said.
The next step would be the closure of Catholic churches in rural areas and the adoption of a similar strategy to the Church of Ireland where a smaller number of clergy served larger areas, he said.
Rural priests would become "more centralised" serving a number of parishes, with congregations made up of people from adjoining areas.
"We simply cannot ignore the fact that a lot of people are moving to nearby towns and as a result these towns are growing significantly. Tuam is a typical example," said Father Kilcoyne.
Closure of churches may meet opposition, he conceded, but it was inevitable given the sharp decline in vocations.
During the 1970s there was a slowdown in vocations but this had increased slightly during the 1980s as the Catholic church adopted a more conservative approach, he explained.
However, the scandals involving child sex abuse which emerged during the 1990s brought about a massive reduction in vocations.
"We knew that there was going to be a reduction but the scandals accelerated the reluctance of people going for the priesthood," said Father Kilcoyne.
He did not anticipate a reversal of the situation.