The Roman Catholic Church has decided that the only way to recruit priests these days is through Facebook. (Some other sites also come to mind. sub.ed.)

The church's popularity is at an all time low. With accusations that so called celibate priests have been fathering children and been involved child abuse scandals it has been hard to find young men interested in signing up. Now the church has set up a page on Facebook as part of a campaign to attract young people to the priesthood following decades of dwindling ordainments.

There are around 24,000 priests in France today, down from 42,000 in 1975. The number of Catholics entering the diocese has declined as well, from 116 ordainments in 1999 to 89 in 2009. The Church is spending euro 250,000 on a recruiting drive with some of it being spend on Internet advertising. The Facebook page, which at least was free, has garnered over 1,200 fans within one week.

Apparently the church is getting 100 emails a day in response to the campaign, nearly all positive.