A widower with a son who returned from Iraq, a man whose brother didn't, businessmen, immigrants and refugees are among the 2007 ordination class.

The class of some 475 men from dioceses across the country being ordained for the priesthood reflects the church in the United States that is filled with well educated professionals, newcomers to the nation and souls touched by war. Most will be ordained in the spring.

Timothy Kruthaupt, 55, who was widowed when his son Alex was 16 months old, was ordained in June for the Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Alex, now 27, works in Washington and is a sergeant in the Army Reserve, missed his father's ordination to the deaconate last year when he was deployed to Iraq.

Matthew Fasnacht (Winona, Minnesota) lost his older brother Michael, an Army Ranger killed in Iraq in 2005 by a remote controlled bomb.

Several ordinands have military background. Christopher Butera, 28 (Allentown, Pennsylvania), is a mechanical engineer, and is a lieutenant in the Army Reserve. Daniel Goulet (Baltimore) served eight years in the Army and will return to active duty as a military chaplain after three years of parish service in the archdiocese. He was co-sponsored for the seminary by the Archdiocese for Military Services.

Kim Schreck (Pittsburgh) participated in a summer chaplaincy program of the U.S. Navy in 2004. James Peak (Spokane) is a major in the Army Reserve. Daniel Kennedy (Boston) is a reservist in the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps. Darren Eldridge (Lafayette, Louisiana) spent 16 years in the Air Force, where he flew B-52's in the Strategic Air Command and saw combat in Desert Storm.

Franciscan Brother George Corrigan, who will be ordained a Franciscan priest, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1974, and served aboard nuclear submarines in the Pacific.

Some ordinands made a hard trek to the United States. Marco Antonio Gonzalez (Raleigh, North Carolina) came to the United States in 1991 with his family, who worked as migrant laborers. He is the first Mexican-born priest ordained for the diocese. Other Mexican priests are men on loan from dioceses.

Ngoan Phan (San Francisco) was one of thousands of Vietnamese who lived for a time in a Hong Kong refugee camp. Trinh Le, who will be ordained for the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, was a seminarian who tried to escape Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. He was caught and put in a labor camp for six months before he was sponsored to come to the United States.

About six percent of the Class of 2007 are converts to Catholicism. W. Daniel Beeman (Richmond, Virginia) was a Methodist before meeting the Catholic Church through campus ministry at the University of Richmond. Douglas Freer (Trenton, N.J.) was an Episcopal priest for 12 years.

About a third of the class are foreign-born, with many from Asia. Jay Jay Wu, 55 (Los Angeles), is from Macau; Arturo Mallari (Rockford, Illinois) was born in the Philippines; Janusz Romanek, 32 (Marquette, Michigan), is from Poland; and several are from Vietnam, including Anh-Tuan Nguyen (Los Angeles) and Khoa Phi and Thang Pham (Biloxi, Mississippi).

Ages vary. The Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee, ordained three older men: W. Patrick Resen, 60; Randy L. Stice, 53; and William J. McNeeley, 51, a former Episcopal priest, who is married and has two grown children. He was ordained under the Pastoral Provision by which Episcopal priests can become priests in the Catholic Church while married.

Some men were in religious orders. Steven Sanchez, 31 (Santa Fe), was a Carmelite friar. James Ekeocha (Austin, Texas) originally came to the United States as a seminarian for the Josephite order. John Linden (Lansing, Michigan) was a Franciscan brother.

Vocations run in some families. Joshua Waltz (Bismarck, North Dakota) will become a priest a year before his older bother Justin, who is to be ordained next year. Two brothers, Paul Nguyen, who studied at Mt. St Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and his older brother John, who studied at Theological College in Washington, are among five men ordained for the Archdiocese of Washington. Both men were born in Vietnam and are part of Our Lady of Vietnam Parish, in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Four men were ordained in the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, by Bishop Raymond Peņa, who is celebrating his own 50th anniversary of ordination this year. In the Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, Robert Faith is the first native of the diocese to be ordained for it.

The new priests have a broad range of educational backgrounds. In the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, Dallas St. Peter taught in Winooski, while John Schnobrich, taught in Ludlow. Barry P. O'Leary, 58 (Pittsburgh), was principal in several diocesan schools. His classmate from Pittsburgh, William Dorner, was employed as a substitute teacher in several school districts.

Jeff Meeuwsen (Portland, Oregon) taught in a Catholic elementary school. David Ruchinski (St. Augustine, Florida) spent 10 years as a teacher between his college seminary and the theologate.

A variety of professional backgrounds are represented in the class of 2007. Ron Kreilein (Evansville, Indiana) was a professional pilot for 28 years. Richard Warsnak (Kansas City, Kansas) also has a pilot's license and once owned a hot-air balloon company.

Michael Earthman, 33 (Galveston-Houston) worked in finance. His classmate there, Vincent Tran, 38, worked for the City of Houston helping people find jobs. Emilio Magaņa (San Diego) worked in law enforcement. Thomas Lawless (Albany, N.Y.) was a hospital accountant. Roy Campbell (Washington, D.C.) worked 33 years at Bank of America and retired as vice president.

Cari Bani (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) was a practicing physician (radiology). Michael Scherschel (Chicago) was a vice president at an ad agency. Marco Antonio Durazo (Los Angles) is an architect. Joseph Shimek (Milwaukee) is an attorney who worked as a judicial law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Thomas Vassalotti (Brooklyn) graduated from the Julliard School of Music and played double bass for the Long Island Philharmonic for 13 years.

Carmen Anthony Buomo, Ph.D (Baton Rouge), is a widower who had been married 33 years and was a high school principal and a family and marriage therapist. And Francis Mulvaney, who will be ordained for the Redemptorists religious community, was a practicing psychologist.