In this article, the author examines how some of the tenets of Catholic social teaching (dignity of the human person, seeking the common good, and preferential option for the poor and vulnerable) along with the notion of integral formation (a principal belief of Catholic education), helped form a perspective on development that counterposed the neoliberal understandings of development he encountered from government officials as he set about opening a Catholic secondary school in Tanzania. After tracing the various strains of influence, including the thought of Julius Nyerere, Tanzania's first president, the article makes use of the fruits of an analysis of data to propose a set of principles to those inaugurating educational projects in the developing world. The article concludes by suggesting potentially wider application.