Italian priest quits Catholic Church, marries Kenyan woman in traditional ceremony

An Italian Catholic priest, Sandro Ferretto, has left the priesthood and married a Kenyan woman, Sharon Jepng’ok, in a traditional ceremony in Baringo County, Kenya.

Ferretto, 55, wed Jepng’ok, a Tugen woman from Baringo South, on September 6 at Seretion village, Kasiela — the same area where he served as a Catholic parish priest for 12 years, according to the Kenya Times, which broke the story alongside Kenyan outlet Tuko.co.ke.

The couple were joined through a Koito ceremony, a Kalenjin customary rite involving dowry negotiation and family blessings. Relatives, community elders, local leaders and Jepng’ok’s colleagues reportedly attended.

Ferretto was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Padua in Italy and began missionary work in Kenya in 2008, serving the Kasiela and Mochongoi areas under the Diocese of Nyahururu, according to diocesan records and Padua newspaper Il Gazzettino.

He was widely known in the community simply as “Father Sandro.”

He returned to Italy in December 2020 and, by 2023, was leading a pastoral unit of eight churches in Saletto, Borgo Veneto, in the Padua diocese.

In December 2023, Il Gazzettino reported that Ferretto had abruptly stepped down from that post after a final Mass, giving little notice to his own colleagues.

The Diocese of Padua, confirming his exit, said at the time that Ferretto “remains a priest and is not involved in any controversy,” describing the move only as a requested pause from pastoral duties.

He was said to be volunteering with a Padua-based migrant support group during that period.

He later returned to Kenya, where he reunited with Jepng’ok, whom he had met during his years as a missionary in Baringo.

Under Catholic canon law, priests of the Latin Rite are bound to celibacy and may not marry while remaining in active ministry.

A priest wishing to marry must first obtain laicisation — a Vatican-approved process that removes clerical status and typically includes a dispensation from the celibacy vow. Without it, a priest’s marriage is not recognised by the Church.

Neither the Diocese of Padua nor the Diocese of Nyahururu has issued a statement on the marriage.

Photos and video circulating from the ceremony, verified via Kenyan entertainment site Bana Media, show Ferretto and Jepng’ok dressed in matching orange-and-blue traditional attire with beaded gowns, taking part fully in the Koito dance rites before a crowd of well-wishers at Seretion village.