BOSTON -- In Boston, the pitch is personal -- spend a weekend with Cardinal Bernard Law to talk about whether the priesthood is in your future.
In Milwaukee, it's advertising -- billboards offering "the World's Greatest Boss."And in Providence, R.I., God has taken to the airwaves -- looking for MTV fans who might hear the calling.
Faced with a shortage of clergy, Catholic leaders across the country are using their influence and imaginations to persuade more young men to become priests.
Mindful that pop-culture forces push young men to pursue sex and money more than religion, Law hopes his personal time might nudge young men to make the difficult choice to forgo marriage and devote their lives to the church.
Next month he'll spend a weekend at St. John's Seminary in the city's Brighton section with about 30 men recommended by diocesan priests as potential seminary candidates.
"He wants to have that kind of personal contact with the young men," said John Walsh, an archdiocese spokesman. "He's very enthusiastic about the priesthood, and that comes through. He's a great advertisement."
The investment has paid off in the past. Of 52 men who attended two earlier retreats, 10 have entered the seminary and others are considering it.
While many dioceses use modern techniques like advertising, Catholic clergy say the old-fashioned, personal approach favored by Law will be the key to rejuvenating the priesthood.
The Baltimore diocese is doing both -- running ads and holding retreats and arranging for seminarians to speak to children in the fifth and eighth grades.
According to the U.S. Catholic Conference, the number of priests in the country fell from 58,132 in 1965 to 48,097 in 1996. The average age of ordained priests in 1996 was 58. The number of Catholics, meanwhile, has grown from 46.6 million to 61.2 million in 30 years.
A USCC survey found many young men consider becoming priests but very few priests encourage the ambition. In another survey, only 33 percent of priests said they had actively encouraged boys to enter seminary.
The organization has acknowledged it has obstacles to overcome, especially the damage caused by pedophile priests, which has scared some men off and made many priests reluctant to develop close relationships with youngsters.
But those close relationships do pay off, clergy say.
Law is hoping his efforts will meet with the same success that his friend, Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell, has had in Knoxville, Tenn.
A study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University showed Knoxville had the highest ratio of priests to Catholics -- one in 3,610 -- in the nation. The next highest is the diocese of Fargo, N.D., which has one priest for every 6,531 Catholics.
O'Connell was the first bishop in Knoxville, a new diocese that was carved out of the Nashville diocese in 1988. When he arrived, he said he'd act as his own vocations director.
"Nobody really bought it," said Ed Miller, editor of the diocesan newspaper. "But he really did, and he really made a campaign to get young men interested in the priesthood."
The Rev. Michael Cummins, 30, who was ordained in 1995, is one of Knoxville's newest priests. He said O'Connell's personal touch helped him make the decision.