Catholic Church’s Pastoral Counseling Role in Addressing Domestic Violence against Women in Marriage in Muranga County, Kenya

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to examine the role of pastoral counseling by the Catholic Church in addressing domestic violence against women in marriage, in Maragua Parish, Murang’a County. Survey research design was used in this study. The main respondents of this study population were the married couples. The target population for this study was 5420 catholic church members. The sample size included 360 married couples from the parish. Random sampling procedure was used to arrive at the sample. The main research instruments used in the study was questionnaire. Quantitative data analysis procedure was used where data were analyzed and reported in frequencies and percentages and summarized using figures and tables. Quantitative analytical software, namely SPSS was used to process the data. The results showed that Catholic church played a critical role in addressing domestic violence against women in marriage through increasing confidence and self-esteem among women. The study also took into account the contribution of the male members of the society, with a call to respect women and help create coexistence in the society. This study informs the role that faith based organizations could play in addressing gender based disparities in society.