Veritatis Gaudium: Multidisciplinary Journal of Postgraduate Studies

The issue of a lack of relative peace and social justice is very much evident in our society, especially in the domain of African political and religious congruence, where there is motivated violence and conflict. And it is the very nature of the human person to desire peace and justice. In fact, this is one of the clauses of the justification of the establishment of law and the institution of government in human society. It is on the value of the attainment of harmonious living amongst humans that issues of peace are envisaged for the realization of Integral Human Development (IHD). But the contrary is widely witnessed, all because of the conflict of human interests. In all this, without the value of peace and justice, there will be no authentic development. This paper seeks to ascertain the relevance of building national development policies and strategies for the attainment of peace and justice on the values of human ‘Charity in Truth’ in Catholic Social Teaching. In an attempt to contextualize the thesis, an evaluation is made of the church’s Africentric concern for the realization of IHD. It concludes to ascertain that Catholic Social Teaching has the aim for the holistic formation of the human person that guarantees healthy living and positive symbiosis amongst the ecology of existence, and it must be preached in order to curtail the negative waves of contemporary developmental demands and interests.

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