John Nolan has experienced life on his own in the secular world, tasting both success and failure. Now he wants to serve others as a Catholic priest.

But first, he'll have to learn enough Spanish and become comfortable enough in Latino culture to minister to the Latinos who will make up the majority of his future parishioners.

Last fall, at age 42, he enrolled at San Antonio's Assumption Seminary, the nation's premier Catholic training center for bilingual, bicultural ministry with a Mexican-American flavor.

Nolan is one of 26 men who came to Assumption for the first time this year — its largest entering class in 36 years.

While nationwide graduate-level seminary enrollment statistics are basically flat, the San Antonio school has a bumper crop of seminarians. Enrollment jumped from 51 in 2005-06 to 76 this academic year, also a 36-year high. Seminary officials say eight more young men are arriving this month, and others are expected next fall.

Those statistics have Archbishop José Gomez brimming with excitement and full of optimism about the school's future.

"The Catholic community simply cannot do without priests. That would be like a major corporation trying to survive without managers. We need seminarians so we can have priests to keep the Catholic faith alive," Gomez said.

And many of the people tomorrow's priests will serve are Latinos, both native-born and immigrants from all over Latin America — but especially Mexico.

Assumption is considered the nation's premier Catholic seminary for training bilingual, bicultural priests for ministry in a predominantly Mexican-American environment, said Father Larry Christian, its rector.

For decades, most bishops in other parts of the country have ignored Assumption as a "niche" seminary for Latino ministry, since their flocks included few Hispanics.

But today, they urgently need priests trained in Latino ministry, and some are realizing that Assumption is well-equipped to help them face that challenge.

Assumption has accepted eight more seminarians for this spring semester — bringing enrollment to 84 — and more dioceses want to enroll men here next year. Six dioceses are asking about Assumption for the first time ever, Christian said.

That's not all. For the second year in a row, 11 Assumption men will be ordained for service in various dioceses. Few of its past ordination classes have had 10 or more.

The seminarians come from 16 dioceses — nine in Texas, three in California and one each in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina.

"There's nothing like this going on at any other U.S. seminary," said Catholic University of America sociologist Dean Hoge, a national expert on Catholic clergy data.

He said seminary enrollment typically fluctuates slightly from year to year. Assumption's did for a long time, averaging 44 from 1973 until 2006. It passed 55 a few times but dipped to 20 in 1982. Only five years ago, it was just 36.

Everything Assumption does — celebrating Mass, praying the Rosary, reciting daily prayers and conducting Eucharistic adoration, celebrating religious holidays and even meeting with formation advisors and academic counselors — reflects a thoroughly bilingual, Mexican-American culture.

Its Masses, prayers and devotions are conducted in Spanish each Wednesday and Thursday. There's almost constant practice for Spanish speakers to learn English and English speakers to learn Spanish.

"When the liturgy is in English, some of the guys from Latin America don't understand it," Nolan said. "When it's in Spanish, I get put in the same position.

"The first few weeks, I was flipping pages back and forth trying to find the right place in the prayer book," he recalled. Fellow newcomer Clay Hunt, a veteran of seven years in a religious order, helped him find his place in the Spanish prayer book in those early weeks.

His only frustration has been in not understanding Spanish homilies at Mass, particularly when fellow seminarians laugh at something the homilist says.

"I want to grasp everything that's going on. But at dinner, I can ask, 'What did he say?' and the guys are all wonderful. We help each other."

Because Assumption is near the heart of San Antonio, it offers numerous opportunities for hands-on bilingual ministry in nearby parishes that non-urban seminaries can't match.

Deacon Ray McDaniel, whois to be ordained a priest in May for the Fort Worth diocese, said the total immersion in a bilingual, bicultural environment has prepared him to move comfortably into ministry among Latinos.

"I can pray in Spanish on my own, and I've learned to live and work with people from many cultures. We've had people here from Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Vietnam and the Philippines."

Seeing into the future

That was while Latinos were the exception rather than the rule in most U.S. Catholic dioceses.

Today, they comprise nearly 40 percent of the nearly 70 million U.S. Catholics, and are expected to surpass 50 percent by 2020.

The dioceses of Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C.; Atlanta; Reno-Las Vegas, Nev.; and Portland, Ore., have the fastest-growing Latino immigrant populations in the country, a 2000 study by the U.S. Catholic bishops' conference found.

They have few priests prepared to minister to these immigrants in their own language and cultures.

With only one Latino priest available for every 9,925 Hispanic Catholics, bishops must find non-Latinos and train them with the skills to minister among Latinos.

Archbishop Gomez said most U.S. seminaries aren't geared for Latino ministry. He hopes to persuade more bishops to recognize Assumption as a ready resource for precisely the kind of culturally conditioned ministry they must provide in the years ahead.

Thanks to its cooperative relationships with Oblate School of Theology and the Mexican-American Cultural Center, it's well suited to serve those needs.

The fact that dioceses are already contacting Assumption about new candidates for the 2007-08 academic year is a hopeful sign for the future, Christian said.

"We'd like to see our enrollment reach 100. Five years ago, that would have looked like a mountain too high for us to climb. But now we're nearly there, and it appears well within reach."

Other seminaries have bilingual components, but none with a Mexican-American flavor to match Assumption's.

St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, Calif., which serves the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, has a bilingual, bicultural ambience, too — but its focus is English and Vietnamese, geared toward serving southern California's immigrants from the Pacific Rim.

St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach, Fla., also prepares students to celebrate Mass and sacraments in Spanish and English. But its cultural orientation is Caribbean.

"The vast majority of Latino immigrants are still coming from Mexico," Christian said. "No other Catholic seminary in the country has the experience in training men for that segment of the Latino population that we have."

But Assumption's biggest contribution to the national effort to train men for Latino ministry might be to show other seminaries how to duplicate what it does.

The San Antonio seminary is nearly at full capacity now. Even with the new 80-unit residence hall — named for Archbishop Patrick Flores — being completed on schedule this August, new housing must be found if enrollment passes 100.

"We don't have to worry about having to close. Our biggest question is, how big do we want to be?" Christian said.

What's behind the rise

Christian cited several factors that have developed over several years.

"The sending dioceses know us better. They know our theology and how we work. We've built up a great deal of trust with them, and we work with their vocational directors who recruit candidates."

With Gomez's backing, Assumption has reconfirmed its longstanding cooperative relationship with Oblate School of Theology, where would-be priests receive their graduate-level theological training.

And while major seminaries in Los Angeles, San Diego and Boston closed their college-level formation programs over the past three years because of declining enrollment, Assumption reopened its college program this year after nearly 30 years, accounting for nine of the 26 newcomers.

Meanwhile, Father Arturo Cepeda,vocation director for the San Antonio archdiocese, and other seminary faculty members have spoken about vocations in parishes all over the archdiocese. Cepeda conducts discernment retreats for young men and leads a monthly discernment group that helps the men determine — without pressuring them — whether seminary life is for them.

Gomez himself has missed few opportunities to promote priestly vocations.

"We always end (San Fernando Cathedral's) Sunday evening Youth Mass by singing 'Salve Regina' (a hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary) and reciting a prayer for vocations. I often ask young people if they've thought about a vocation. Some look at me like 'Are you crazy?' and others express interest."

Cepeda has received 13 inquiries as a result of Gomez's youth Mass talks.

The San Antonio archdiocese has 22 seminarians this year, up from 14 last year. Of this year's 26 newcomers, 10 are from San Antonio.

Gomez believes the enrollment surge reflects a larger trend of curiosity among young Catholics about their faith.

"I have no statistics showing this, but I've seen it in different parts of the country. More high school-age men are interested in vocations, and more college-age men are entering seminaries," he said.

Last year, Gomez visited a seminary in Minneapolis that had more than 100 college-level men in its formation program. He also watched 2,000 enthusiastic young Catholics at the Encuentro for Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry at the University of Notre Dame in June.

"They were very excited about their Catholic faith. You don't often think of young people happily getting up for Mass at 7 a.m. and praying the Rosary, but they did. They were asking how to pray, how to recite the Rosary, and some asked how to prepare for the priesthood," he said.

Also, pastors often pass along names of young men who seem like good candidates and invite seminary faculty members to preach at Sunday Masses. Some encourage single male parishioners to think about priestly ministry.

"I love what I do, and I think it would be good for others," said Father Mike Horan, pastor of St. Luke's Parish.

Seeing Nolan's increasing involvement in a variety of ministries at St. Luke's, Horan arranged for him to attend a discernment retreat.

"I also began inviting John to accompany me on home visits to the elderly and to help me plan funerals — and he loved it," the priest said.