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.