Catholic Teachers in Zambia to Enhance Sharing of Catholic Faith in Institutions

“The Catholic identity and Catholic ethos in these schools were completely lost (and) just during this ending year, effort has been made to claim the lost ownership,” the diocesan education secretary told ACI Africa.

Convened under the theme, “Mobilize teachers to live faith with impact,” CATADOM also sought to strategize the promotion of “the identity of the Catholic Church through values and conduct” and “unity and cooperation among Catholic teachers in the diocese of Mongu.”

The meeting also encouraged “Catholic teachers availing themselves for the service of the Church whenever they may be.”

Explaining why teachers were the target to help promote Catholic identity in the diocese, Fr. Hodari said, “Teachers are more in contact with many people at the end of the day than anybody else, including politicians. The impact of their Catholic faith will go a long way.”

“We want to give enough Catholic knowledge to our teachers so that they will help in parishes to teach catechism, conduct Sunday services in rural centres where there are no priests and so on,” the Zambian cleric added.

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To achieve the objective of the association, Fr. Hodari explained, “we have collected data for all Catholic teachers in the diocese and stored in the computer (so) we know where and who they are.”

In addition, he said, “Interim leadership in all districts has been chosen to run up to April 2020 with the task to set up the constitution after which election of leadership in all levels will follow.” 

According to Fr. Hodari, “Catholic teachers in our schools are not the majority and the government gives us a chance of having 70% of students and 70% of teachers. CATADOM will therefore help us to attain this percentage especially Catholic teachers.”

 The diocesan education office has organized another three-day workshop for all teachers in Catholic schools slated to take place from January 10. Participants will be oriented on Catholic ethos.