The Catholic Church in England and Wales is targeting men from ethnic minorities to boost numbers of those training for the priesthood.
The move follows talks with the Church in the US which has been hosting 'Hispanic breakfasts' to boost the number of Spanish speakers joining seminaries.
Fr Stephen Langridge, Chairman of the Conference of Diocesan Directors of Vocation of England and Wales, who was a member of the group that visited the US in September of this year, said: "The Catholic Church in our country has been greatly enriched by immigrants in recent years.
Many families from Asia, eastern Europe and Africa are very strong in the faith. We want to help the young men in these families to recognise that God may be calling them to serve as priests in their new homeland.
"Sometimes, if they don't see priests from their ethnic group in their parishes, they can lose heart. We need their ministry!"
The body responsible for recruiting trainee priests is also looking to better resource current parish priests in finding possible future church leaders.
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