AP file photo Pope Benedict XVI greets the faithful after celebrating Mass at Yankee Stadium in New York on Sunday.

**ADVANCE FOR FRIDAY APRIL 25** In this April 20, 2008 file photo, priest designated to serve communion line the edge of the stage as Pope Benedict XVI blesses the eucharist during Mass at Yankee Stadium in New York.(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, Pool,File)

**ADVANCE FOR FRIDAY APRIL 25** In this April 19, 2008 file photo, Catholic clergy line up to enter St. Patrick's Cathedral before the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig,File)

The crowd of 25,000 Roman Catholics burst into cheers when Pope Benedict XVI took the stage for a youth rally during his U.S. visit last week. Chanting "Viva Papa!" they pressed against security barriers and reached out to touch him.

Many Catholics and church leaders were happily surprised by the outpouring of enthusiasm. Now, they hope the experience will draw some of the young revelers into the priesthood.

Ever since ecstatic throngs began greeting Pope John Paul II, analysts have been looking for any direct link between a papal visit and seminary enrollment.

The Rev. Donald Cozzens, a former seminary rector and author of "The Changing Face of the Priesthood," said there's no way to know the exact impact of a papal pilgrimage. But he said Benedict's warmth and grandfatherly presence could inspire many to at least consider ordination.

"There's a certain mystery to a call to ministry in the priesthood," said Cozzens, who teaches at John Carroll University in Ohio. "Some people know they are destined to be a priest from their childhood and other people discover this call much later in life. Sometimes it's awakened by a papal visit."

Younger priests today tend to have more traditional views of the church than older clerics, and many attribute that trend to John Paul's defense of orthodoxy. Others who study the priesthood say that new clergy candidates now tend to come from the most committed parts of the church, and would likely fill seminaries with conservatives no matter who was pope.

The Rev. Michael Morris, director of pastoral formation at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., where the youth rally was held, credits John Paul's 1979 trip to the U.S. with moving him toward enrolling in seminary. But he said the pope's presence was not the only reason he joined.

"There were a lot of guys from my generation who entered the seminary in the early '80s. We entered on the heels of the pope's first visit," said Morris, who teaches church history at the seminary. "I can't say that it was just a visit that inspired us to become priests, but sometimes you need a nudge."

He plans to talk about the pope's visit, the priesthood and religious life in the local parish where he helps celebrate Mass, to encourage anyone considering the vocation.

The U.S. priesthood has been shrinking for decades. More than 3,200 of the 18,600 U.S. parishes don't have resident priests, according to the Center for Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. More laypersons than clergy members work full time in the churches.

Dioceses have been hiring recruiters to travel overseas to find clergy candidates. The number of priests from other countries has grown so steadily that some seminaries are adding English classes, hiring accent-reduction tutors and providing courses on American culture.

International recruitment is motivated partly by the exploding demand for Spanish speakers for the Hispanic immigrants filling the pews. About 30 percent of the men ordained in the U.S. last year were from another country, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The bishops' conference has created a recruitment campaign, called Fishers of Men, that encourages priests to invite young men to consider entering the priesthood.

George Weigel, a Catholic theologian and John Paul II biographer, said Benedict was a vibrant example to them of how fulfilling life can be in service to the church.

"It's impossible to tell, today, what numerical impact the pope's visit will have on young men discerning a vocation to the priesthood," Weigel said. "But that some men will have been moved to think of that life of self-sacrifice as a great adventure, no one should doubt."