The Catholic Church is so short of priests it has resorted to importing them from around the globe. The Christchurch diocese is bringing in two priests from the Philippines early next month, as well as one from India and a Latin-speaking priest from the United States.
Each will stay three years.
Four young Vietnamese men will also be sponsored to New Zealand, in the hope that they will qualify as priests in future.
Their first task on arrival, though, will be to learn English.
Christchurch Bishop Barry Jones announced the new arrivals in a letter to his flock, saying that the number of priests had not kept pace with the church's needs.
"As has happened in the past, we now have an opportunity to welcome assistance from the Catholic Church in other parts of the world," he said.
Cathedral administrator Father John Fitzmaurice said not only were there fewer priests, but needs were greater among regular parishes and communities who had settled in New Zealand.
"It's a bit like the tide. The tide comes in and goes out. We've had a little bit of an ebb in numbers of new priests recently, but that is not the first time in our history.
"We are just very grateful for belonging to a worldwide church that can assist us in this way."
The national Holy Cross Seminary has 14 seminarians and the Marist seminary has six. In 2005, the two Auckland seminaries had 26 trainee priests.
Catholic Communications director Lyndsay Freer believed dwindling priest numbers reflected a more materialistic society.
"Our culture encourages that ambition and belief in young people that success is measured by income and status.
"At the same time, we're finding that there is a resurgence of interest in values among young people."
Fitzmaurice said overseas priests underwent rigorous screening before they came to work in New Zealand.
The recruits will go through a week-long induction that will teach them about New Zealand culture, the history of Maori and the Treaty of Waitangi, and the role of the church.
They have been assigned priest mentors to help them assimilate.
The two Filipino priests will work in parishes and provide chaplaincy to the Filipino community.
A third priest from the same Filipino diocese is already working in Riccarton.
The US priest from the Fraternity of St Peter will be based at the Cathedral and offer a daily Latin Mass.
The Cathedral has offered a Latin Mass on Saturday nights for 20 years and Pope Benedict has greatly encouraged the use of this old form of Mass, said Jones's letter.
The Vietnamese men, in their mid-20s, will live in four presbyteries with priests, and be supported by the Catholic Vietnamese community centred in Mairehau.
Although overseas priests have joined Christchurch parishes before, this was the highest number recruited at once in recent times.
A regular worshipper at St Mary's Church in New Brighton, Anne McCormack, said it must be difficult for people arriving from different cultures to become leaders of faith communities, especially if English was not their first language.
"If they are to do it well, they have to have quite a lot of support and mentoring and certainly some understanding of the New Zealand culture," she said.
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