The Surrogate Family Fallacy Why Catholic Schools Produce Resilient Souls and Fragile Communities a Theological Reading of a Structural Finding in Adolescent-Resilience Research in the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Nigeria.

A recent psychospiritual dissertation examining resilience among adolescents in Catholic secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Abuja found a mean adolescent resilience score of M = 4.00, set against a mean formation-culture score of M = 3.23 reported by the schools' non-teaching staff—the cooks, gatekeepers, cleaners, and groundsmen who sustain institutional life from its margins (Obada, 2024). Read only statistically, the gap between these figures is modest; read theologically, it exposes a structural problem in how Catholic institutions understand formation itself. This essay's objective is to interpret that gap as ecclesiology rather than psychometrics, naming the pattern it reveals the surrogate family fallacy: the assumption that an institution has been formationally sound wherever the persons who pass through it emerge individually resilient. The method is a theological reading of a single empirical finding, drawing on Pauline body theology, Augustine's account of the totus Christus, the ecclesiology of Mystici Corporis Christi and Lumen Gentium, Henri de Lubac's argument for the social character of salvation, and Yves Congar's theology of the laity. The key finding is that asymmetric success, strong individual formation alongside a structurally uneven community, is not a partial achievement but a distortion: a sophisticated individualist sanctity dressed in the vocabulary of Catholic education. This pattern is shown to be especially acute in Nigerian Catholic schools, which routinely describe themselves as an extended family while running internal cultures in which non-teaching staff feel less formationally attended to than students. The essay concludes that Catholic education need not choose between forming resilient persons and forming a resilient community, but will keep failing to form the second for as long as excellence at the first is mistaken for the whole of its vocation.

Ecclesial resilience, Surrogate family fallacy, Abuja Archdiocese

1. Congar, Y. (1957). Lay people in the church: A study for a theology of the laity (D. Attwater, Trans.). Geoffrey Chapman. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. de Lubac, H. (1950). Catholicism: Christ and the common destiny of man (L. C. Sheppard, Trans.). Burns Oates & Washbourne. (Original work published 1938) [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Obada, J. (2024). Resilience among adolescents in selected Catholic secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Abuja: A psychospiritual inquiry [Unpublished master's thesis]. Veritas University, Abuja. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Pius XII. (1943). Mystici corporis Christi: Encyclical letter on the mystical body of Christ. Vatican.https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_29061943_mystici-corporis-christi.html [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Second Vatican Council. (1964). Lumen gentium: Dogmatic constitution on the church. Vatican. https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• A Comparative Study of Adjustment Level, Parental Income and Academic Achievement of Adolescent Girls
• Increase in STIs among Adolescents in Masvingo District
• A Correlation between SDG 4 (Quality Education) and Emotional Disposition of Teacher Educators in Hyderabad District
• Ear Piercing Behaviour and Self-Esteem among Male University Students in Nigeria
• A Study of Religiosity and Psychological Well-Being