Chaired by Father Damian Musonda, Rector of St. Dominic’s Major Seminary in Lusaka, recent meetings of the Inculturation Task Force have focused on the pastoral issues surrounding healing in African traditions. Why do many Catholics visit traditional healers and what can we learn from their experiences that may improve our own pastoral approaches? Conversations with traditional healers have expanded the understandings of members of the Task Force and challenged them to evaluate many Catholic practices, both sacramental and liturgical. The Task Force is still considering the output it hopes to have after the eighteen-month of its work.

In January, Michael Czerny, S.J., secretary of the Social Justice Secretariat of the Jesuits in Rome, visited and made presentations on new directions for the social apostolate of the Society of Jesus. JCTR staff members Catherine Kachidza and George Makaha participated in one of the presentations.

Alex and Pete then accompanied Michael to Nairobi in for a week-long meeting of Jesuit social apostolate coordinators from throughout Africa and Madagascar. They were particularly interested to learn what other Jesuit "faith and justice centres" are doing in different countries, and to gather ideas for future JCTR directions.

The cost of living project directed by Alex is currently undertaking the household survey for primary school teachers in Lusaka rural and urban. The general objective of the study is to improve conditions of workers in Zambia by establishing a recognised "poverty datum line" that would serve as a basis for wage negotiations in an effort to bring about sustainable livelihood and poverty reduction. Other objectives include assessing the impact of the rising cost of living, measuring primary school teachers' poverty levels and assessing how this is affecting the quality of education and national development

A one-day in-house workshop for the staffs of the JCTR, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and Catholic Development Commission was held in February. Held at Luwisha House and facilitated by Pete, the workshop provided an overview of the church’s teachings and its foundation in scripture, with emphasis on how this teaching should both motivate and sustain the staffs’ work and guide the direction of their service of the people. A follow-up workshop is scheduled for mid-year.

In early March, some of JCTR and CCJP staff facilitated a day of study on the poverty situation in Zambia and practical responses. Participants in the workshop were members of the Irish Embassy and Irish Aid office in Lusaka. Pete Henriot finished the first-term course at St. Dominic’s Major Seminary on "Social Teaching of the Church" which he co-teaches with Fr. Joe Komakoma of CCJP. In mid-February Pete co-facilitated the week-long workshop in Harare on economic justice for the southern African justice and peace teams and their northern partners.

The CCJP/JCTR Debt Project has kept extremely busy in recent months, keeping up the popular mobilisation campaign (including radio dramas in vernacular language and street theatre), the research into issues (such as Zambia’s apartheid-caused debt), and the advocacy work for a "Debt Mechanism" to assure that any resources freed up by debt relief really do go to poverty reduction programmes. A major Jubilee 2000-Zambia conference drew 80 participants to a lively day-long discussion on 24 February of "Will Debt Relief Mean Poverty Reduction in Zambia?" The Minister of Finance and Economic Development delivered the major address and he and his Deputy Minister spent several hours at the conference – a sign that the campaign is being taken seriously by the Government!

A new addition to the Debt Project Staff is Charity Musamba, who joined Chrispin and George at the beginning of March. She will focus on research and on communications for the project. Given the number of visitors almost every day, the small office occupied by the Debt Project staff is always busy.