WHEELING. W.Va. -- The mood at last week's convocation of priests of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh was relaxed and jovial, as men in jeans and T-shirts lounged in Adirondack chairs at Oglebay Park or played golf or hiked its rolling hills. Bishop Donald W. Wuerl walked the halls in khakis and sports shirts, chatting with priests who requested a word with him.

Held every three years since 1989, it was the first such convocation since the nationwide clerical sexual abuse scandal rocked the priesthood in 2002. It also was a place to talk in closed workshops about how parishes can conduct ministry as the number of priests who retire far exceeds ordinations.

Yet their conversations were upbeat, echoing polls showing that the job satisfaction of Catholic priests was higher than that of most Americans.

"Even with the scandal, our people still have a deep respect for the priesthood," said the Rev. Joseph Kleppner, pastor of St. Frances Cabrini in Center. When his parish of 2,000 families no longer qualified for a second priest, parishioners stepped up to take on nonsacramental duties.

"If people get the information about what's happening in the diocese, they understand. Very often their faith strengthens our faith," Kleppner said.

He was one of 285 priests to attend the convocation, about 86 percent of active diocesan priests. Workshops at previous convocations addressed spirituality. But this year, priests asked for workshops on how to help their parishioners plan for a future with fewer priests. Much of the focus was on lay ministry, from training laity, to leading prayers at the cemetery after a funeral Mass, to having several small parishes share a business manager.

There were workshops on how to pay for more lay parish staff members, and on drafting personnel policies for an expanded lay staff.

Such issues are of concern across the nation, and priests everywhere report they are overworked. Yet national studies done in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal also reveal high morale.

Late last year, the Rev. Stephen Rosetti, a priest-psychologist, surveyed 834 priests from 11 dioceses. Of those, 92 percent said, "Overall, I am happy as a priest," with 90 percent saying they were happy in their current assignments. According to his report in America magazine, 84 percent declared they were proud to be a priest. By contrast, Rosetti noted, a CNN poll of 5,000 Americans found 63 percent of people happy with their jobs.

While the sexual abuse scandal was painful, the publicity had unintended benefits, a group of priests seated at a lunch table said. Parishioners and others began going out of their way to be friendly and supportive.

"At confession, people have been saying 'Father, I'm praying for you.' They didn't say that 10 years ago. Now they say it all the time," said the Rev. Samuel Esposito, pastor of Good Samaritan in Ambridge.

Since the scandal, said the Rev. Charles Bober, pastor of St. Kilian in Mars, "People now see that not only are you capable of failing, but you are capable of feeling. People realize that their priest could be really hurting or really tired. It had the effect of sensitizing the people."

Most priests at the table were excited about new developments in their ministry.

At St. Kilian, a booming suburban parish of 7,738 people, three of seven weekend Masses are held in a public high school due to crowding. Plans are under way to build a new church on 30 acres.

Although Holy Rosary in the tiny, rural Washington County town of Muse has fewer than 1,500 parishioners, it, too, is bursting at the seams. Farms are being sold to developers and 600 houses are slated to be built within parish boundaries. At the same time, so many Mexican farm workers have moved in that the Rev. George DeVille started a Spanish Mass.

"My problem is that we have to get a bigger church," said DeVille, who will seek diocesan permission to search for 25 acres.

Good Samaritan has what many people might view as the opposite problem. With 145 funerals last year, it has the highest death rate in the diocese and is closing three of the four church buildings it has used since its creation in a 1994 merger of five parishes.

But Esposito sees the decision to close beloved churches as a sign of renewal and spiritual maturity among the 5,800 people. When he arrived four years ago, the parish had a reputation for burning out priests due to factionalism.

Whether it was because he rolled up his sleeves to roll hoagies for the parish festival or apologized from the pulpit to anyone who had ever been hurt by someone representing the Catholic Church or because the US Airways bankruptcies forced his airport-area parishioners to put church squabbles in perspective or because they were just ready to pull together, something clicked. People long resistant to cooperation came on board. The lay leadership looked to the spiritual good of the whole community and decided they would be better off worshiping in one building, he said.

Parishioners are more open to new ideas about collaboration and lay ministry than they would have been a decade ago.

"Western Pennsylvanians are notorious for resisting change. But our people in Ambridge have already learned that the church has not always been the way it is now or done things the way it does now," he said.

DeVille was ordained in 1957 into a church that conceived of itself as unchanging. Five years later, that idea went out the window when Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council to renew the church. DeVille has been helping people adjust to changes ever since.

In 47 years of priesthood, he said: "We've gone from telling lay people in the church that they're not allowed to do anything, to lay people doing all these ministries. That's good. They're not passive anymore."

The Rev. Frank Almade, pastor of St. John Vianney in the Allentown area, acknowledges he could recite a litany of negative news about Catholic priests. But that's not what consumes his thoughts or his prayers, he said.

"In my head, I have great hope for evangelization, with an active, energized laity taking a big role in the renewal of the church," he said.

No one was more optimistic than Wuerl.

The bishop said he believed there would be a resurgence in the American priesthood, and that the shortage was temporary. At college campuses, he finds young people seeking spiritual answers because they are dissatisfied with the materialism and shallowness of secular culture, he said. The diocesan seminary admitted seven men this year, and had three times that many applicants, he said. Most who weren't accepted were not rejected outright but urged to spend more time in discernment to make sure it's a mature decision, he said.

"There were at least three times since the French Revolution in Western Europe when the Christian faith was declared dead. In the wake of that were religious revivals that ended up producing religious communities, missionary outreach and spiritual renewal," Wuerl said.

"We are going to see a revival. We are going to see a renewal."