Plans to ease Britain's acute shortage of Roman Catholic priests by importing scores of African clergy are being discussed by senior bishops with the Pope's blessing.
The initiative to "re-evangelise the West" was raised at a Vatican-backed conference of 100 Catholic bishops and archbishops from Europe and Africa earlier this month.
The bishops, including representatives from Britain, debated the idea of a large-scale exchange of clergy between the booming Church in Africa and its ailing European counterparts.
Under the plans, African priests from parts of the continent where vocations are thriving would send priests to parts of Europe is desperate for clergy.
In return, a far smaller number of priests from Europe would be sent to Africa to help with a shortage of pastoral experience and trained teachers in their theological colleges.
Although there has always been a limited interchange on a local level, such an international scheme has never before been raised by Church leaders. It follows years of declining vocations and growing secularism across Europe, a problem dramatically highlighted by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the head of the Vatican's theological watchdog, at the weekend.
In England and Wales, there were only 18 priests ordained this year and in the diocese of Dublin there was just one this year and there is none due to be ordained next year. In contrast, Nigeria alone has about 5,000 men training to be priests.
Bishop Tom Burns, who was representing the bishops of England and Wales at the conference, said the initiative could become "a kind of reverse missionary effect".
He warned, however, that the plans were at an early stage and would have to be handled sensitively, beginning with dioceses strengthening links with their African counterparts.
The Bishop said clergy from Africa would have to be carefully selected and prepared before being sent to British theological colleges or parishes because of the culture shock. "It is something we would welcome for the right kind of people," he said. "But we have to be wary that dioceses don't just take anybody because they are short of priests and that the attractions of Western life do not confuse the issue.
"I don't think there are any real answers to the vocations crisis unless we are able to foster our own vocations and let our people feel that they have their own priests."
Archbishop John Onaiyekan, the President of the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, said: "I believe priests from places like Nigeria can re-evangelise Europe. Just 150 years ago, it was Europeans who were doing the evangelising. Now we should have the two Churches doing the work - Africa and Europe."
At the conference, bishops said the zeal of Africans needed to be used to help overcome the malaise in the West. They also called on the world's wealthiest countries to help to rid Africa of mass hunger and tackle other issues from Aids to illiteracy. The scheme was strongly backed by Fr Addison Okpeh, a Nigerian priest who has been working at St George's Catholic cathedral in south London for four years.
Fr Okpeh, 43, said he had faced few problems adapting to British culture, though he still found it difficult to adapt to the climate and the restrained style of worship. "People talk of a culture shock but we live now in a global village," said Fr Okpeh from Lagos. "There are already many nationalities in London to whom we could minister, and our young priests could help to spread the idea that the priesthood is not just for the elderly."