CHAPEL HILL - When I asked a Catholic friend whether she attended St. Thomas More church here, she answered in true Yogi Berra fashion, "No one goes there anymore; the parking situation is impossible." Humor aside, the fact is that more people attend any one of a dozen Catholic churches in the Triangle area than there were Catholics in the entire state of North Carolina 100 years ago. And despite the widely reported decline in vocations, there are more priests working in the Raleigh area today than there were clergy in the state's 100 counties in 1908.

That year is significant for the Catholic Church in the United States. On June 29, 1908, Pope Pius X issued an apostolic constitution that removed the American Church from its status as "mission territory." In effect, the pope decided that the church here was strong enough to stand on its own two feet and no longer need depend on missionaries and money from Europe. In addition, the pope challenged American Catholics to begin sending missionaries to areas of the world that remained in their ecclesiastical infancy.

However, while the United States as a whole moved into adulthood, North Carolina, with its minuscule Catholic population, remained mission territory dependent on other regions for finances and personnel. It would not be until 1924 that the Tar Heel State was judged mature enough to be elevated to the status of a diocese.

Nevertheless, and paradoxically in light of the dire straits of the church here, it was a Raleigh priest, Thomas Frederick Price, who accepted the challenge of Pope Pius X and in 1911 left the orphanage that he had established in Raleigh, went north, and with a Boston priest founded the Maryknoll order that would send hundreds of priests to serve the church in far-flung parts of the world.

The insider Catholic humor was that Price got so frustrated trying to convert North Carolina Baptists that he thought he might have more luck with the Chinese. And he did!

In 1919, shortly before his death in Hong Kong, Price wrote to Father William F. O'Brien, pastor of the Durham parish of the Immaculate Conception, "Since we came here, more than two thousand pagans have given in their names for instruction."

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IN ONE OF THOSE STRANGE TWISTS OF HISTORY, it is descendants of "pagans" converted by Father Price and his associates a century ago who today contribute substantially to the professional staffing of the Catholic Church in the United States, including North Carolina. The role of foreign nationals is especially significant in light of the fact that native-born vocations have plummeted.

In effect, if not officially, the United States is once again mission territory.

The number of priests ordained annually in this country has decreased from nearly a thousand 40 years ago to 401 in 2008. Of that number, one-third was foreign-born. In the archdiocese of Chicago, all 11 priests ordained this spring were born outside this country. For many such priests, learning our language and culture is a challenge, just as learning Chinese was for Father Price.

Besides the large number of foreign-born priests, the average age of men being ordained is 36, a decade older than their 1968 counterparts. Furthermore, many of those who are native born are converts from other religions or men who drifted away from the Catholic faith for a number of years. Few have had the parochial school formation of their older colleagues.

In many dioceses, differing views on the role of the priest as well as on doctrinal and disciplinary matters have produced tension between the newer clergy and their veteran confreres.

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THE EFFECT OF THE LATINO POPULATION ON THE CHURCH HAS BEEN REPORTED EXTENSIVELY. What may not be as widely known is that Hispanic growth includes not only men, women and children in the pews, but also priests at the altar. Half the priests ordained for North Carolina in recent years have been from Latin America, including a Colombian, Romen Acero, one of the four men ordained last month for service in the state.

As for Asians, their numbers have increased so substantially that several new churches have been established to serve them. Tri Vinh Truong, from Vietnam, is another of this year's new priests. With his family he fled his homeland in the wake of the war waged there several decades ago. He will not feel alone, joining several Vietnamese already members of the local clergy.

A third member of the quartet of new North Carolina clerics is Michael Spurr, a 45-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who enters the priesthood as a second career, not an unusual route these days.

The final new priest is a man who might bring a smile of satisfaction to the intrepid Tar Heel apostle, Father Price. The Reverend Brad Jones, ordained for the Diocese of Charlotte, was raised as a Southern Baptist.

(William F. Powers, a retired professor of sociology is the author of "Tar Heel Catholics: A History of Catholicism in North Carolina.")

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