FATHER Aidan Jones has retired as parish priest of Bunclody after 16 years in the presbytery on The Mall.
And the 72-year-old will be succeeded by a man who is just one year his junior.
Fr Aidan said goodbye to parishioners on Sunday after celebrating Mass for the final time in the church of the Most Holy Trinity.
He makes way for Fr Laurence O'connor, who is transferring from Ballycullane to take up one of the highest profile jobs in the Ferns diocese.
The arrival of Fr O'connor, six years qualified as an OAP, has underlined the shortage of new recruits to the ranks of the Catholic clergy.
In the case of Bunclody, home-grown priests have been supplemented in recent years by members of the Institute of the Word Incarnate from Argentina who reside in the half parish of Kilmyshall.