The Rev. Thomas C. Lopes, a Vineyard native who has been ordained for 43 years, will retire as pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, North Easton, on June 24.

Father Lopes, who will turn 70 in August, plans to retire to the Island. He intends to assist at churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River with the celebration of Masses and other priestly services.

A 1956 graduate of Tisbury High School, he studied for the priesthood at St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Conn., and at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton. He was ordained a priest in 1965.

For the next 13 years he served as a parochial vicar or assistant pastor at three parishes: St. Elizabeth in Fall River, St. Anthony in East Falmouth and St. John the Baptist in New Bedford.

In 1978, he began ministry as a hospital chaplain, first at Morton Hospital in Taunton and then in 1982 at Cape Cod Hospital. Father Lopes was named pastor at Holy Ghost Parish in Attleboro in 1985 and pastor at St. Mary-Our Lady of the Isle Parish on Nantucket in 1991.

Other diocesan appointments through the years have included chaplain to New Bedford juvenile court, and representative to the National Priests Federation Council.