Father Adolf Poll, who was fondly known as Father Alleluia, served in the Catholic Dioceses of Kisii and Malindi and he returned to Italy for his retirement on Tuesday, May 25, 2021.
According to a statement by the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, Malindi, the octogenarian who will turn 81 in the coming week has been serving as a missionary priest in Kenya since 1968.
The statement indicated: “Today May 25, 2021, the missionary priest, who will celebrate his 81st birthday next week (3rd June), packed all his personal belongings acquired during his more than five decades of priestly ministry in Kenya, fitting in just two small bags, and started his journey back home in Italy for retirement.”
He was ordained as a priest in 1966 in Northern Italy, and he came to Kenya in December 1968 to serve as a missionary priest. Father Adolf served in the Diocese of Kisii between 1969 and 2000 and on the Pentecost Sunday of 2001, he was appointed to serve in the Diocese of Malindi.
“Twenty years later, on Pentecost Sunday 2021, he celebrated his farewell Mass at Witu-Kipini Parish in the Central Deanery of Malindi Diocese.”
Many Kenyans attested to the priest’s humility in his decades of service.
During his service in Kisii, he used an old Toyota pick-up truck while in Malindi, he moved around in a motorbike.
He is said to have had no interest in accumulating material possessions and it was little wonder he moved back to his home country with just two bags.
