From celibacy to marriage: Ex-Italian Catholic priest who returned to say 'I do'

For 12 years, Italian-born Father Sandro Ferretto knew Kenya from behind the altar. He preached, celebrated Mass, visited families and walked alongside parishioners in communities where faith was woven into everyday life.

Much of his missionary service was spent in Kasiela and Mochongoi, areas under the Diocese of Nyahururu. Over time, the Italian priest became a familiar figure, recognised not simply as a clergyman but as someone whose life had become intertwined with the people he served.

On Sunday, however, the same community witnessed a strikingly different chapter.

In Seretion Village, Kasiela, the 55-year-old former priest married Sharon Jepng’ok in a traditional wedding (koito), bringing together an Italian past and a Tugen heritage that had met during his years in Kenya.

The colourful ceremony was more than a wedding. It was a full-circle moment for a man whose Kenyan story had long been associated with Catholic ministry. The priest once known in the community for his clerical collar returned as a groom, surrounded by relatives, elders, friends and community members.

Ferretto was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of Padua in Italy before arriving in Kenya as a missionary in 2008. For about 12 years, he served in Kasiela and Mochongoi under the Diocese of Nyahururu.

Over time, he became part of the local Catholic community and crossed paths with Sharon, a Tugen woman from Baringo South and daughter of former councillor John Wendot.

Their relationship developed over time, eventually leading to marriage.

On Sunday, their union was celebrated through Koito, the traditional Kalenjin rite, associated with family negotiations, dowry arrangements and the blessing of a union. Relatives, community elders, local leaders and colleagues gathered as Ferretto’s Italian background met Sharon’s Tugen heritage.

For people who had known Ferretto during his missionary years, the occasion carried emotional weight. The man they remembered as a priest had not disappeared from their story; he had returned in a new role. Now the place held celebration, ceremony and memories.

Cross-cultural character

Koito gave the union a distinct character. It brought families together and affirmed that marriage is not only a decision but a relationship between households, histories and communities. Sharon’s Tugen roots were central, while Ferretto’s Italian background added to its cross-cultural character.

For a community accustomed to seeing outsiders arrive and leave, Ferretto’s decision to remain connected to Kenya added another layer to his association with the region. The ceremony showed how relationships formed during service can survive changes in vocation, creating bonds deeper than roles.

But beneath the joy and colour of the occasion lies a more complicated question about the Catholic priesthood: what happens when a priest decides he wants to marry?

Under Latin Catholic canon law, clerics are bound by an obligation of celibacy and cannot validly marry while remaining in active ministry. A priest who wishes to leave the clerical state and marry must obtain the appropriate permissions, including a dispensation from the obligation of celibacy.

The distinction matters in Ferretto’s case. His exact canonical status has not been publicly confirmed by the Diocese of Padua. It would therefore be inaccurate to state definitively that he has been formally laicised. It is safer to describe him as having left active priestly ministry.

Laicisation is commonly used to describe the process through which a priest leaves the clerical state. A laicised priest may no longer exercise priestly ministry in the ordinary way. Yet Catholic teaching holds that ordination leaves a permanent sacramental character; the sacrament itself is not erased.

Ferretto’s journey also comes at a time when questions surrounding priestly celibacy, culture and the future shape of Catholic ministry are being discussed more openly within the Church.

The Synod on Synodality, a multi-phase consultation that began in 2021 and concluded in 2024, brought together clergy and lay Catholics at parish, diocesan, national, continental and global levels. Its final synthesis report, approved by Pope Francis in October 2024, captured a wide range of perspectives on the Church’s future.

The African regional assembly was organised under the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, or SECAM. It met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from March 1 to 6, 2023. Contributions from eight regional episcopal conferences were distilled into a final document before being incorporated into the wider synodal process.

Proposals

Kenyan George Sunguh, then president of the Union of the Catholic African Press and one of 12 members of the Communication Commission for the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican, helped prepare the African proposals. He was part of the six-member African team working under SECAM.

Sunguh argued that the Church could find ways to accommodate traditional African practices while protecting its doctrinal integrity. In his view, the African perspective pointed towards a Church that is modern, inclusive and deeply rooted in the cultural realities of its faithful.

“Overall, the African perspective on the Synod of Synodality highlights a hopeful vision for a Church that is modern, inclusive, and deeply rooted in the cultural realities of its faithful,” Sunguh said.

The discussions have nevertheless exposed a deep divide over how far the Church should go in responding to changing social and cultural realities.

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Germany has voiced strong criticism of aspects of the Synod, comparing it to an “Anglican synodal meeting” and accusing some participants of “abusing the Holy Spirit” to introduce new doctrines.

Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong has warned that legitimising certain reforms could “alter everything”, including core doctrines of faith and moral discipline.

According to Sunguh, the period between 2025 and 2028 is intended for implementing the Synod’s recommendations, culminating in a final ecclesial assembly at the Vatican in October 2028.

Ferretto’s personal story, therefore, intersects with a much larger conversation, although his wedding should not be presented as evidence of any change in Catholic teaching on celibacy.

He is not the first former Catholic priest to choose marriage after leaving active ministry.

In Kenya, former priests have at times joined independent or breakaway Catholic movements that permit married clergy. The Renewed Universal Catholic Church, founded by former Catholic priest Peter Njogu, has ordained former Roman Catholic priests who married after leaving the Roman Catholic Church.

Njogu was excommunicated in 2002 following his relationship with Berith Karimi. He later married Karimi and founded the Renewed Universal Catholic Church, which permits married priests.

Another former priest, Edwin Gathang’i Waiguru, left the Roman Catholic Church and joined the Catholic Charismatic Church. In October 2023, he married Margaret Githui and was subsequently ordained within the splinter church. He said he had felt the need to marry and have a family after years of celibacy.

Excommunicated

Father Godfrey Shiundu also left the Roman Catholic Church and married former nun Stella Nangila in 2006. He later became associated with the Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ, a breakaway Catholic movement.

In Zambia, Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo married Maria Sung in 2001. His marriage eventually contributed to his excommunication after he refused Vatican demands to separate from his wife.

In the United States, Father Alberto Cutié, a prominent Catholic priest and television personality, left the Roman Catholic Church in 2009 and joined the Episcopal Church. He later married Ruhama Buni Canellis and continued ministry as an Episcopal priest.

The Rev Thomas Groome, an Irish-American theologian and former Catholic priest, left the diocesan priesthood after years of ministry. He received an official dispensation, married Colleen Griffith in 1985 and later built a distinguished career in religious education and theology.

Francis MacNutt, a former Dominican priest and prominent figure in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, left the Dominican Order in 1980 to marry Judith Carole Sewell. The couple later established Christian Healing Ministries.

In Nigeria, former Catholic priest Mike Boni Bazza left the priesthood after about 25 years and married Ratilla Ussa in Kaduna in 2019.

There are also established exceptions to the general rule of celibacy. Since 1980, certain married former Anglican clergy who enter full communion with Rome have been eligible for consideration for Catholic ordination under special provisions. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI established personal ordinariates for groups of Anglicans entering the Catholic Church, allowing married former Anglican ministers to be considered for priesthood under specific conditions and with Holy See approval.

Tugen heritage

For Ferretto and Sharon, however, Sunday’s ceremony was ultimately less about canon law than about a shared journey.

A man who once arrived in Kenya carrying the responsibilities of missionary priesthood returned to the community where he had spent years serving, this time without the clerical collar and with a bride beside him.

The village that had known him as Father Sandro saw another side of the man behind the priesthood: a private life, a relationship that grew over time and a decision to build a family with a woman whose Tugen heritage had become part of his Kenyan story.

For Sharon, the ceremony was a celebration of family, culture and a relationship that had travelled across backgrounds and borders.

The Koito therefore became more than a marriage ceremony. It became a bridge between Ferretto’s Italian roots and his Kenyan experience, between his former vocation and his new life, and between a community that once received him as a missionary and one that now welcomed him as family.

Their story does not resolve the centuries-old debate over priestly celibacy, nor does one marriage signal a change in Church law. But it places a human face on a question often discussed in theological and institutional terms.

Behind every debate about rules, vocation and reform are individuals making difficult choices about faith, love, identity and family.

For Ferretto, Sunday marked a new beginning. For the community, it was an opportunity to celebrate a man whose life had become part of its own history.

And for a village that once knew him as a priest, the wedding offered perhaps the most unexpected full-circle moment of all: Father Sandro had returned, not to preach, but to say “I do”.