BETHLEHEM, Pa. - In his first month as assistant pastor at a nearly all-white parish, the Rev. Cletus Onyegbule visited the home of a congregant he had not yet met.

Faced with a black man in a cleric's collar at her door, the befuddled parishioner blurted out: "I'm sorry, I'm Catholic."

"Guess what?" said Onyegbule. "So am I."

Being mistaken for a Baptist is among Onyegbule's more benign experiences since coming to the United States as a refugee from Nigeria nearly 10 years ago.

Jailed initially on immigration charges, he studied at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood and was ordained in 2002. The Allentown Diocese assigned him to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a 2,500-family parish on the outskirts of this former steel city.

The 38-year-old Onyegbule has struggled with cultural differences. In Nigeria, the church is stricter and more authoritarian, and priests are held in high esteem. Here, like all American clerics, he has had to deal with the stigma of the abuse scandals that have plagued the priesthood. Unlike most others, he has also felt the sting of stereotypes about Nigerians, their alleged dishonesty being one.

"When people hear you are from Nigeria," he said, "you really have to earn their trust."

Onyegbule is among the growing number of priests and seminarians from the developing world who are shoring up the ranks of the Roman Catholic clergy in the United States, and offering what some experts suggest may be the solution to America's priest shortage.

In 2004 (the latest available data), the Philadelphia Archdiocese had 77 foreign-born priests, about 10 percent of its clergy. The Camden Diocese had 35, about 13.5 percent of the total. Most were from India, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Nationwide, the 7,600 foreign-born clerics now account for about 16 percent of the priesthood, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington.

The proportion is likely to grow. A typical American-born priest is 10 years older than the typical international priest, and as they retire, immigrants will assume a larger role. About 22 percent of seminary students are foreign-born.

Some experts warn, however, that America is becoming too dependent on foreign priests. The immigrants often come from different ecclesiological and cultural backgrounds and sometimes clash with American congregations over issues taken for granted here, such as the societal role of women or the separation of church and state.

Sometimes the obstacles are as basic as distracting accents.

Onyegbule says members of his congregation looked puzzled every time he spoke the word important - until he discovered that they thought he had said impotent.

"I don't see foreign priests as the solution," said the Rev. Robert J. Silva, president of the National Federation of Priests' Councils in Chicago, an advocacy group for clerics.

Churches, he said, should confront the hard issue of promoting vocations in their own congregations.

American Catholicism has almost always depended on foreign priests. Irish clergy were its backbone during the waves of European immigration in the 19th century.

Contrary to common perception, America produced a surplus of priests only in the 1940s and 1950s, according to International Priests in America, a study published last year by the Priests Council. "Over the years this nation has brought in many more missionaries than it has sent out," the study pointed out.

"What has changed is that the international priests today are more visible and more exotic."

It also noted that the shortage is largely a matter of local perception. Catholic churches in the United States and Europe have far fewer congregants per priest than the countries that are sending their priests here. In 2002, there was one priest per 1,375 Catholics in America, compared with one for every 4,694 in Africa.

"It's almost like raiding the other countries, a new form of colonialism," Silva said.

Some dioceses and religious societies are making special efforts to recruit foreign priests.

The Josephite Fathers and Brothers, a Baltimore order dedicated to serving African American parishes, has arranged with a Nigerian seminary to bring students to America to finish their schooling and start their careers. Without the immigrants, the Josephites would be in danger of becoming extinct.

"At one time we had 250 priests. Now we have 90," said the Rev. John Filippelli, spiritual director of St. Joseph's Seminary in Washington. "We still have pastors in their 80s. That's why this can be a blessing."

In Nigeria, the church produces more priests than it has the financial resources to support.