Pastoral Services

The Diocese carries out pastoral ministries through its own diocesan priests as well as through men and women belonging to different religious congregations.

A religious congregation is a body within the Catholic Church working with a specific Charism of it's founder embodied in the Constitution of the Congregation with the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

The Diocese has 76 diocesan priests and about 31 more young men in various stages of their eight year long priestly formation. They work mostly in parishes, mission stations and schools.

The diocese has 4 congregations of men : They are, 1. The Society of Jesus (Jesuits - SJ), 2. The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), 3. The Society of St Francis Xavier (Pilars Fathers-SFX) and 4. Missionary Brothers of St Francis of Assisi (CMSF). These religious Priests and Brothers are engaged in all sorts of services like education, pastoral ministry, social service and vocational training, etc.

There are about 26 Religious congregations of women working in the diocese. They run schools like Mount Carmel School in Ahmedabad by the Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel or St Xavier's High School at Vatva by the Sisters known as the Little Daughters of St Francis Xavier. St Mary's Mahila Shikshan Kendra and Social Service Centre at Gomtipur managed by the Dominican Missionaries of the Holy Rosary (O.P.) Most of the sisters work in small towns and villages running dispensaries, boardings for girls and mahila mandals, etc.

Medical Services : Health for All

With the aim of proving medical services especially for the poor and needy, the Catholic Church runs a number of dispensaries in villages and small towns. The Diocese also runs two hospitals at Nadiad and Ahmedabad which cater specially to the people from the lower strata of the society. Besides, the Diocese also manages the Narol Leprosy Hospital which is hailed as a model leprosy hospital in Gujarat and beyond.

The Diocese through the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa also runs two Mobile Dispensaries in slum areas offering medical services to the poorest of the poor in Ahmedabad city.

The St Mary's Nursing Home at Gomtipur, the mill area of Ahmedabad city is known as the cheapest and safest "delivery home" for the poor in the city.

Most of our dispensaries function in villages where no other medical services are available to the poor and backward people. These dispensaries and mobile clinics reach out to all people irrespective of their castes and creeds.