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Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas
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Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas
The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas is a Catholic educational institution and accommodation center in Rome which is mainly open to members of the laity. It provides an international community and formation for lay ecclesial ministers and other lay students at the pontifical universities, athenaeums, and institutes in Rome, Italy. It is international in character and composition, and welcomes ecumenical students from other Christian churches and ecclesial communities, as well as those from non-Christian religions.
The Lay Centre's mission is threefold:
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; both of them had lived in the building as students, when it was run by the Ladies of Bethany, and took over the building when they left.
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. 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.
Orsuto 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.
Foyer Unitas, meaning “Hearth of Unity”, had itself started as an information centre for non-Catholic pilgrims and visitors to Rome during the Holy Year of 1950, directed by Charles Boyer, SJ, at the request of Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini (later Pope Paul VI), who was then responsible for ordinary affairs at the Secretariat of State. Two years later, a Dutch religious institute with a charism for ecumenism and hospitality, the Ladies of Bethany, received an invitation from Pope Pius XII to expand their ministry to Rome and assist Fr. Boyer with the Foyer Unitas. In addition to the general information centre work, the Ladies of Bethany provided specialized tours around Rome and Vatican City, combining catechesis, theology, church history, art and architecture with an awareness of the particular interests of ecumenical pilgrims.
In 1956 they expanded their facilities to accommodate resident students. By 1962 the pending Vatican II Council prompted another relocation and expansion, this time to the Collegio Innocenziano in the complex of the Palazzo Pamphilj, next to the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone on Piazza Navona. While there, Foyer Unitas served as the residence for official ecumenical observers at the council and their families, and was the site of weekly briefing sessions offered by various periti of the council to the ecumenical observers. These briefings, conducted in English and other modern languages (in contrast to the official business of the council, in Latin) proved so popular that soon several of the Council Fathers began attending as well. At least four of the major documents of the council were drafted during these consultations. Among the peritii who presented at the briefings, and who resided at Foyer Unitas for a short time, was Prof. Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI).
By 1986, however, changes in Italian law which required religious guest houses to meet the same codes as hotels and pensione, combined with the ageing of the original staff, prompted the Ladies of Bethany to close Foyer Unitas. It was at this time that that Orsuto and van Velzen, two of their au pair student staff, proposed to use the space to open a resident community, which they dubbed the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas.
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Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas
The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas is a Catholic educational institution and accommodation center in Rome which is mainly open to members of the laity. It provides an international community and formation for lay ecclesial ministers and other lay students at the pontifical universities, athenaeums, and institutes in Rome, Italy. It is international in character and composition, and welcomes ecumenical students from other Christian churches and ecclesial communities, as well as those from non-Christian religions.
The Lay Centre's mission is threefold:
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; both of them had lived in the building as students, when it was run by the Ladies of Bethany, and took over the building when they left.
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. 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.
Orsuto 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.
Foyer Unitas, meaning “Hearth of Unity”, had itself started as an information centre for non-Catholic pilgrims and visitors to Rome during the Holy Year of 1950, directed by Charles Boyer, SJ, at the request of Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini (later Pope Paul VI), who was then responsible for ordinary affairs at the Secretariat of State. Two years later, a Dutch religious institute with a charism for ecumenism and hospitality, the Ladies of Bethany, received an invitation from Pope Pius XII to expand their ministry to Rome and assist Fr. Boyer with the Foyer Unitas. In addition to the general information centre work, the Ladies of Bethany provided specialized tours around Rome and Vatican City, combining catechesis, theology, church history, art and architecture with an awareness of the particular interests of ecumenical pilgrims.
In 1956 they expanded their facilities to accommodate resident students. By 1962 the pending Vatican II Council prompted another relocation and expansion, this time to the Collegio Innocenziano in the complex of the Palazzo Pamphilj, next to the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone on Piazza Navona. While there, Foyer Unitas served as the residence for official ecumenical observers at the council and their families, and was the site of weekly briefing sessions offered by various periti of the council to the ecumenical observers. These briefings, conducted in English and other modern languages (in contrast to the official business of the council, in Latin) proved so popular that soon several of the Council Fathers began attending as well. At least four of the major documents of the council were drafted during these consultations. Among the peritii who presented at the briefings, and who resided at Foyer Unitas for a short time, was Prof. Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI).
By 1986, however, changes in Italian law which required religious guest houses to meet the same codes as hotels and pensione, combined with the ageing of the original staff, prompted the Ladies of Bethany to close Foyer Unitas. It was at this time that that Orsuto and van Velzen, two of their au pair student staff, proposed to use the space to open a resident community, which they dubbed the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas.