Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas

The Lay Centre's mission is threefold:

• To provide a formation program for the resident student community based on the four pillars of formation for Christian ministry and leadership, identified by the Holy See: spiritual, intellectual, human and pastoral.
• To provide ongoing adult faith formation to the anglophone community of Rome.
• To provide a series of international programs giving church leaders and other laity from around the world a unique opportunity to explore the history and theology of Rome.

The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas was founded in 1986 by Prof. Donna Orsuto and Ms. Riekie van Velzen as a community for the lay students at the Pontifical Universities in Rome.

Orsuto completed her Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1990 with a dissertation entitled Saint Catherine of Siena : trinitarian experience and mission in the Church. She is Professor at the Institute of Spirituality of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, and an Adjunct Professor of the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.

Recognizing a need for a resident college open to lay people who were not members of religious communities, and seeing an opportunity in the closing of the Casa Foyer Unitas, the Lay Centre opened on 1 October 1986 with a community of nine students.

The Lay Centre has developed, in collaboration with the Congregation for Catholic Education, a comprehensive program of formation appropriate to the lay person called to an ecclesial vocation, grounded in the baptismal priesthood. The program assists the lay faithful to discern their vocation within the communion and mission of the church. Its program is based on the four pillars of formation outlined by the Catholic Church in various documents: Human, Spiritual, Intellectual and Pastoral.[3][4]

The Spiritual formation includes the opportunity for daily participation in the Liturgy of the Hours, particularly vespers. Wednesday evenings are community evenings which begin with the liturgy of the Eucharist, with a guest presider, usually a bishop or priest from one of the curial dicasteries or pontifical universities. A chapel, with the Blessed Sacrament reserved, is available to residents twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

For students in Rome’s Pontifical Universities, the classroom provides only a part of the intellectual formation that all students are expected to receive while enrolled. The rest is to be found in their respective colleges. To that end, part of the weekly community evening is a presentation on a topic of contemporary church life, theology, ecumenism, or spirituality from the guest presider, in an informal setting over dinner. Additionally, residents are able to take advantage of the ongoing formation programs offered by the centre.

Human formation takes the form of a variety of excursions through the city of Rome focusing on church and civil history, art and architecture, and culture. Students engage on a daily basis in the “dialogue of life” with a diverse community which spans the globe. The daily life of the community encourages consideration of others’ different cultural assumptions, and all share housekeeping responsibilities. Volunteer placement in services around the city is available with groups such as the Missionaries of Charity and the Community of Sant’Egidio.

Residents prepare to serve alongside presbyters and deacons, monks and mendicants, lay ecclesial ministers and people involved in lay movements. As students of pontifical faculties, most will serve in an ecclesial vocation, often as an academic theologian or lay ecclesial minister at the national or diocesan level. Part of the pastoral formation is learning to work with the variety of people in a variety of ministries in the exercise of their service for the church.

In addition to this program of formation, The Lay Centre provides students with a comfortable room that includes internet and telephone connectivity, and an active community life: Wednesday formation evenings, three-meals each day (including a self-service breakfast), the space and time for communal prayer, and regularly scheduled cultural and social events. The Lay Centre staff is on hand to ease the transition to Roman life, and to provide the students with practical support. All residents are involved in The Lay Centre’s activities, from day-to-day, simple house tasks to helping with our various lecture series at special times during the year.[5]

Hospitality is a key theme of the Lay Centre, and owes much to the charism of the Ladies of Bethany and Foyer Unitas out of which the Lay Centre was born. Part of this is the commitment to welcoming ecumenical and interreligious guests into the community’s dialogue of life, while maintaining a Catholic identity. Part of this ministry is in small acts of hospitality, welcoming guests to community meals, and inviting the Roman community into the centre for events throughout the year.

About twenty-five people can reside full-time in the Lay Centre, typically representing a broad international and interreligious diversity. The 2015-2016 community, for example, included residents from eighteen countries and eleven religious traditions: Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Christians; Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Unitarian Universalist, and T'ienti Teachings are all represented.

The Lay Centre offers the laity a unique opportunity to explore the history and theology of Rome. A variety of formats include weeklong and weekend study programs designed for parishes, universities, and other organizations. Programs are shaped by the Catholic traditions of liturgical prayer, erudite study, lively dialogue, and pilgrimage to various Christian sites in the Eternal City. Types of programs include a three-week January-term program for university students; week-long thematic programs open to lay ecclesial ministers, teachers, and other lay leaders from around the world; and tailored programs for particular groups, such as the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.[7] The most recent was a conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, co-organized with the National Association of Lay Ministry in the U.S.[8]

The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas is a legally recognized institute in Italy. In the United States it is incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation and is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. It is governed by an eight-member Board of Directors, which includes a Passionist priest and a former resident. An Honorary Board supports the work of the Lay Centre, and includes expert Vaticanist John Allen Jr; Archbishop Michael L. Fitzgerald, Apostolic Nuncio to Egypt; Ambassador Tony Hall (ret.) and Secretary James Nicholson (ret.).

The co-founders of the Lay Centre, Professor Donna Orsuto, DSG, and Ms. Reikie van Velzen, DSS, serve as director and administrator, respectively. Other staff includes a chief operating officer, office manager, cooks, and facilities staff. Resident community members are also responsible for sharing in a number of house jobs and staffing the local education events. A handful of residents have a kind of 'work-study' arrangement of about 20-25 hours a week of additional support of programs in exchange for room and board.

The annual operating budget (as of 2015):[9]

Revenues totaled approximately $765,000, including:

• $215,000 from resident rent and membership fees,
• $200,000 from program fees,
• $350,000 from grants and donations.

Expenses totaled $800,000, including:

• $135,000 in rent,
• $310,000 in payroll and benefits expenses,
• $80,000 in payroll taxes.

• www.laycentre.org