The Italian priest who found love in a Baringo woman

For years, Sandro Ferretto’s life in Kenya revolved around Catholic missionary work, pastoral service and a vocation that required celibacy. But on Sunday, September 6, 2026, the 55-year-old Italian-born former priest began a different chapter when he married Sharon Jepng’ok in a colourful traditional Koito ceremony in Baringo.

Held at Seretion village in Kasiela, the ceremony brought together relatives, community elders, local leaders and friends, blending Ferretto’s Italian background with Sharon’s Tugen heritage.

Ferretto was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Padua in Italy and arrived in Kenya in 2008. He spent 12 years serving as a missionary, including in Kasiela and Mochongoi in Baringo County.

It was during this period that he met Sharon, the daughter of former councillor John Wendot. Their friendship developed into a relationship that eventually saw Ferretto leave active priestly ministry and return to Kenya to marry the woman he had loved.

By 2023, he was serving in a pastoral unit in Saletto, Borgo Veneto. Reports from the period indicated he stepped away from his role for a time of reflection.

More recent reports describe him as having left active priestly ministry before returning to Kenya.

But the distinction between leaving active ministry and leaving the Catholic priesthood altogether is important.

Under Catholic canon law, clerics are bound by the obligation of celibacy. A priest cannot validly marry while he remains a cleric. The process of leaving the clerical state (commonly known as laicisation) does not automatically remove the obligation of celibacy. A separate dispensation must also be granted by the Pope.

But once formally dismissed, he is no longer permitted to exercise priestly ministry.

In Ferretto’s case, his exact canonical status has not been publicly confirmed by the Diocese of Padua. It is, therefore, more accurate to describe him as having left active priestly ministry than having been laicised.

In Kenya, several former priests have joined independent or breakaway Catholic movements that permit married clergy.

Peter Njogu, for instance, a former Catholic priest, founded the Renewed Universal Catholic Church in Kenya, a movement that has ordained former Roman Catholic priests who married after leaving the Church. The movement has permitted former Roman Catholic priests who have married to continue serving as clergy.

Edwin Gathang’i Waiguru also left the Roman Catholic Church, joined the Catholic Charismatic Church and married Margaret Wanjira Githui in Kiambu in 2023. He was later ordained within the independent church. He said he had felt the need to marry and have a family after years of celibacy.

Godfrey Shiundu, another former priest, left the Roman Catholic Church and married former nun Stella Nangila in 2006. He later joined the Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ.

The phenomenon is not confined to Kenya. In Zambia, Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo married Maria Sung in 2001, a decision that eventually led to his excommunication after he refused Vatican demands to separate from his wife.

In the US, former priest Alberto Cutié left the Roman Catholic Church in 2009 and joined the Episcopal Church. He later married Ruhama Buni Canellis and continued his ministry as an Episcopal priest.

Former priest Thomas Groome also received an official dispensation before marrying Colleen Griffith in 1985.

Francis MacNutt, a former Dominican priest associated with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, left the Dominican Order in 1980 to marry Judith Carole Sewell.

Despite such cases, celibacy remains the general rule for priests in the Latin Catholic Church. Limited exceptions exist, including provisions allowing certain married former Anglican clergy who enter full communion with Rome to be considered for Catholic priesthood under specific conditions and with approval from the Holy See.

For Ferretto and Sharon, however, their Koito ceremony was less about canon law than the beginning of a new family journey.

In Kasiela, the story of the Italian-born missionary has moved from the altar to a traditional Tugen ceremony, bringing together an Italian past and a Kenyan future.