Catholic Social Teaching and Governance: Assessing the Relevance of Its Core Principles for Inclusive Policy Formulation in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the perceived relevance of the core principles of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) to governance and inclusive policy formulation in Abuja, Nigeria. It was motivated by persistent concerns about accountability, inequality, exclusion, and limited citizen participation in public decision-making. Rather than treating CST solely as a body of religious doctrine, the study examined human dignity, the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, the preferential option for people experiencing poverty, and stewardship of creation as ethical principles relevant to public governance. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The study population comprised 950 respondents: 599 senior staff of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and 351 Catholic clergy across the six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory. From a sample of 274 respondents, 231 valid questionnaires were analysed, for a valid-response rate of 84.3%. Data were collected with a structured four-point Likert-scale questionnaire and analysed using frequencies, means, standard deviations, and Pearson product-moment correlation. Respondents reported high awareness of CST principles and strong agreement that the principles are relevant to ethical decision-making, transparency, accountability, equity, and justice in governance. The hypothesis test showed a strong positive and statistically significant association between the measured CST-principles construct and governance and policymaking perceptions (r = .742, p = .001). The finding reflects an association, not evidence of causation. The study concludes that CST may contribute to public governance when its principles are translated into broadly accessible ethical values rather than imposed as religious doctrine. It recommends ethical-governance capacity building, participatory policy processes, stronger accountability mechanisms, and structured collaboration among public institutions, faith-based organisations, civil society, and communities.