The Rev. Mark Reinhardt was 31 before anybody asked if he’d ever considered the priesthood.

The pastor of St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church in Rockland converted to Catholicism when he was in high school.

He was working at a Waterville car dealership when a priest stopped him after Mass to ask the seemingly simple question that would send his life heading in a new direction.

Asking that question is the key to recruiting enough priests to replace those who are retiring in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland over the next few years, according to the Rev. Frank Murray.

A Bangor native, Murray, 56, serves as director of vocations and director of seminarians for the diocese in addition to his job as pastor of the three churches in Auburn.

Increasingly, the men who are entering the priesthood, like Reinhardt, have not been “marinated in Catholicism” as Bishop Richard J. Malone said he, Murray and older priests who attended parish grammar schools and Catholic high schools were.

“We’re much more up front about asking [men] in parishes if they’ve thought about it,” Murray said this week. “For my generation, it was assumed that women religious or your parents had talked about it when you were 7 or 8. That doesn’t happen today as often. … More priests are aware that we have to come right out and ask the question.”

The path to the priesthood involves prayer, fellowship and reams of paperwork.

Once a man decides that he wants to be a priest, he must fill out a 20-page application, undergo a background check as well as physical and psychological exams, write a spiritual autobiography and submit a recommendation from his pastor. The second phase is the academic application to a seminary, the equivalent of graduate school.

“We rely a lot on the insight of local parish priest,” Murray said, “but the bishop makes the final call.”

Malone, 59, said that he looks for a combination of spiritual, intellectual and human qualities in deciding who the diocese will send to the seminary.

“I like to spend some time chatting with them and listening to them to get a sense of their motivations to get in touch with how strong their desire is to serve the Lord,” Malone said. “What I’m looking for is a healthy, maturing person of faith who is active in the life of the church and has the basic capacities to serve as priest. … Personally, I like someone who’s got a bit of fire in their belly.”

The diocese devotes substantial resources to educating seminarians. The 2005-06 budget includes $421,500 for tuition, books and room and board and other expenses for the 11 men attending seminaries on the East Coast and in Rome.

The diocese holds “days of discernment” and retreats at least once a year, and Malone hosts a dinner for potential priests at his Portland home.

Murray described his role as a “nurturer” who walks “along with them to clarify things that are cloudy.” He continues that role during the five years that candidates attend the seminary.

As the diocese struggles with a shortage of priests over the next decade, Malone said his role is to give future seminarians “an opportunity to stop, look and listen” for that call to ministry.

“I truly believe the Lord is calling young people to ministry right now as much as he ever has,” the bishop said.