Pastoral Ministry is one of the oldest programmes in the diocese. The main aim for this programme is to promote faith and evangelize spirituality to all, in the Diocese and beyond. In order to achieve this, it involves the clergy/ Religious and lay people; the church groups and partners.   As a result of evangelization through the Christian communities there is fast growth of our faith and hence growth of Catholic Church in this Diocese The surge of faith continues to open new challenges of evangelization.     In order to overcome these challenges and even reach further to those yearning to know Good news, while strengthening the faith of our faithful, it has become very necessary to develop a very strong on-going formation for our agents of evangelization, including the priests and religious, the catechists, the Youth, Catholic men and Women, Catholic teachers, catechists, Diocesan Staff, young Christian Students, married couples, parish and diocesan leadership (pastoral councils) et cetera.   This on going formation is undertaken through workshops, In-service trainings, Annual General Meetings, Rallies, Eucharistic Celebrations, Media and publications, Retreats and Recollections, music, weekend challenges, talks/ public speeches, among other avenues of evangelization.   In undertaking the pastoral ministry several programmes and projects have been developed and initiated under the Pastoral Office; including: Catechetical programme Small Christian Communities (SCCs) Leadership and empowerment Catholic Men Association Programme Sunday service Leaders and Eucharistic Ministry Family life programme and Marriage encounter Communications and Printing unit Diocesan Catholic Bookshop Pastoral and retreat Centre. Street Children Programme  Pastoral Coordinator: Rev. Fr. Robert Mutui   Addresses: Pastoral Office P.O. Box 123 -90200, Kitui Tel ) +254 044 22621 Email: cdokpastoral@dioceseofkitui.org SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES PROGRAMME: The Church in Kitui is growing tremendously through Small Christian Communities Since they were introduced in...(Click and read more)

CATECHETICAL PROGRAMME Catechesis is a programme is meant to teach faith and doctrines of the church; as well as to prepare the faithful for Sacramental life. Catechists have a central role in this and in helping the priests in evangelization work.   With the surge of faith in our diocese new challenges of evangelization are opening up every other day.  First, the proliferation of sects and evangelical ministries equipped with an array of sophisticated information technology gadgets, seeking converts from catholic faith.   In addition, some traditionalists view the growth of the Church as a threat to their retrogressive traditional practices and beliefs, and therefore, they have turned their fury against the church. In some instances, our faithful have been physically assaulted or forced to participate in some traditional rites and oaths just to humiliate their faith!   Our Church must face these challenge from these traditionalists; sects and from Islam, with enthusiasm and deep knowledge of its truth and identity. Our Catechists are in the forefront of this struggle. The need to empower our catechists with the right and deeper knowledge of the Gospel, and traditions of the Church is imperative in order to build their capacity and equip them properly.   Catechists Formation: Formation of our Catechists (full time) is done at Mbitini catechetical Centre, in the neighboring diocese of Machakos. However as a way of cutting costs and increase the number of trained volunteer catechists in the diocese at the same time, a new In-service training programme that was developed in the pastoral programmes has seen the diocese now train its own catechists locally in a one year-long certified programme that is done in three phases, in December, April and August. This programme is facilitated by competent priests, and trained catechists. This training programme targets catechists from all over the diocese, with Parish-based training programmes being conducted on the request of a particular parish.   Currently, nearly each of the 24 parishes has one full time Catechist and several others in voluntary service. So far, we have 111 catechists who have undergone the In-service training. Overall, we have 247 volunteer catechists teaching faith in our parishes. This number is far too low compared to the demand. It is the intention of the pastoral Office to have at least one catechist per every single outstation in the entire diocese with over 700 outstations.A big challenge is the financial support to achieve this.   Nevertheless, through this revitalized catechetical programme, the diocese has over 241,000 baptized Catholics, a number that is increasing rapidly. In 2006 alone over 5200 catechumens were baptized, with hundreds more being confirmed.   In addition, due to the catechesis formation getting roots at the Small Christian Communities’ level, more and more people are now solemnizing their marriages. In 2006, 330 couples solemnized their marriages, 14 of them being mixed marriages (Between Catholic and a non – Catholic) EUCHARISTIC MINISTERS/ SUNDAY SERVICE LEADERS: Since the introduction of the programme, Sunday services are now livelier; and the Faithful have more access to Holy... (Click to Read More)

LEADERSHIP AND EMPOWERMENT Empowering Communities for Development: It is our believe that, Kenya is endowed with a lot of local resources that, when utilized in proper manner, equitably distributed, and well managed, we can find competent solutions to our frustrating and demeaning standards of living. This demand for socio-economic, moral and political will to jump-start the efforts towards self-reliance, self-sustainability.   In order to achieve this there is need to equip the community and empowerment them to participate in the projects that will help lessen distance to water sources, food security, peace mobilization, accountability and transparency, environmental care, better health care, high literacy levels, as well as better gender development using home growth solutions to myriad problems.   Further still, through empowerment, our community is enlightened on the need to care and support the vulnerable, the downtrodden, the elderly and the deprived amidst the community. This has not only ensured a milestone in empowering this community in gender responsibilities but also believe in the basic tenet of the option for the poor.   The objectives of this programme are: 1)       To empower community towards Public Resource Allocation, Monitoring, Management, and accountability through creating awareness. 2)       To help create self reliance via local resource mobilization towards fundraising. 3)       To empower community towards Environmental care 4)       To sensitize community towards gender issues in developmental matters 5)       To capacitate women and youth on socio-economic and political leadership 6)       Train leaders who will give voice to the voiceless and the most vulnerable in the communities.   Strategy and Beneficiaries: These objectives are achieved via Workshops and Seminar Trainings, lecturers/ talks from guest speakers, debates, public empowerment clinics, Demos, and focus group discussions. The programme targets Parish and station leaders and the general community, who are given the capacity to formulate plans; make decisions based on Catholic social teachings; they are no longer purely victims of unjust system but major participants in bringing about of Kingdom of God.   With Support from our partners, this programme has created new awareness at the parish level that sustainability is possible and the results are significantly manifested during fundraising events. FAMILY LIFE AND MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER PROGRAMME: Family forms the basic unit of the church and thus the most urgent needs of the growth of faith in this diocese emanate right from the family. We have witnessed so far that the... (Click and Read More)

COMMUNICATIONS/ PRINTING PRESS The Communications office was set up in 2005 to coordinate communication processes within and without the diocese.   The office ensures flow of information in and out of the diocese via utilizing any available communication medium, be it verbal or written, print or electronic. Using an out-fashioned diocesan printing press, Office publishes diocesan publications including a pastoral newsletter, ‘Thome’ after every month or two, and an annual calendar with all the readings of the year. Also, the office manages the Diocesan website, while linking the diocese within itself and with its partners.   However, our biggest challenge is lack of proper communications equipment to enable us exploit the current Communication technology (Information Technologies). The office still lacks proper computer system with spacious memory; editing programmes and peripherals, including Cameras (Digital still and video).   Our printing unit, with which for years, we have been publishing some church evangelization material for the Diocese and beyond,  is obsolete and has no capacity to print in full colour. More so, it is constantly breaking down, needing modifications or total replacement. Also, we would like to develop a Video Production unit, but we lack finances to get the required Equipment.   With support there is great potentiality to create a successful income generating communication programme for this diocese.   Email Address: communications@dioceseofkitui.org