In this clerical company town, a spot for `just plain Catholic'

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 22, 2000 by John L. Jr. Allen

Community caters to laity studying theology

Like many young Catholic men who come to Rome to study at a pontifical university, Chris Gustafson of Green Bay, Wis., believes the experience has broadened his vision immensely, giving him a sense of the global church and an up-close exposure to its leaders.

Unlike most young men in Rome, however, Gustafson -- at least for the purpose of registration at the Angelicum, his university -- has a mother superior. And he pays for most of his theological studies himself.

The difference between Gustafson and the flocks of seminarians who fill lecture halls of Roman universities is that Gustafson is, and intends to remain, a member of the Catholic laity. He is not a member of a religious community, nor does a diocese sponsor him as a future priest. "Just plain Catholic" is how he describes himself, as he aspires to an academic career.

Gustafson is one of 16 students from 10 countries currently living at the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas Institute, located in Rome's monumental Piazza Navona. Now in its 14th year, the center, which offers living space and support for lay students in Rome, represents a lay toehold in what often remains, in ways large and small, a clerical "company town."

That the lay presence is still something of an anomaly here is reflected in Gustafson's encounters with ecclesiastical bureaucracy. When he registers each year at the Angelicum, for example, a form requires him to list his seminary residence and his religious superior. In response to the first question, he writes "Lay Centre." In response to the second, he identifies American Donna Orsuto, the laywoman who directs the center, as his "mother superior."

"The forms are in Latin and they're probably 100 years old," Gustafson said. "It's pretty funny, but it also illustrates how the system is taking some time to catch up to reality."

For centuries, education at a pontifical university in Rome, a gateway for leadership in the church, was largely restricted to priests. Officially, as part of the revolution that followed the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the system is now open to laypeople.

During a Nov. 25-30 "Jubilee of the Lay Apostolate," which brought tens of thousands of laypeople to Rome, Pope John Paul II stressed the council's vision of an expanded role for laity.

Yet more than 35 years after Vatican II, a layperson hoping to pursue a theological education in Rome still faces roadblocks. Rents are high; financial aid is scarce. The transition to another language and culture can be disorienting. Further, laity lack the support system that aspiring clergy or members of a religious community are likely to find.

A diocese seminarian from the United States, for example, can count on room and board in a facility a five-minute walk from the Vatican, help with admission to a pontifical university, and abundant advice on navigating the system from older classmates. A layperson, by way of contrast, often has little more to go on than the apartment listings in a Roman newspaper.

That is precisely the gap that the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas Institute was created to fill.

Orsuto first stayed in the building that would become the lay center in 1978, when she was a junior at Wake Forest University. It was then home to an ecumenical center called the "Foyer Unitas," run by a community of Dutch sisters called the Ladies of Bethany. Orsuto was on a university-sponsored trip to Europe.

Smitten by Rome and by Foyer Unitas, Orsuto returned in 1979 to begin studies at Gregorian University. She eventually attained a doctorate in spirituality from the Gregorian, focusing on Catherine of Siena. She has taught at Regina Mundi, the Angelicum, and, since 1994, at the Gregorian.

Though she is hesitant to put herself forward as a pioneer, Orsuto acknowledges that being a laywoman at the Gregorian in the 1980s made her a bit of a curiosity. When she finished her licentiate, the stage before a doctorate, she was only woman in a class of 50. (Today, she notes, women represents some 20 percent of the Gregorian's enrollment). Based on this experience, those who know Orsuto say, he understands from the inside what it's like to be a laywoman in a clerical world.

In 1986, the Ladies of Bethany closed their operation. Orsuto and Henrica Van Velzen, who had also lived at Foyer Unitas, proposed keeping the facility open as a beachhead for lay students.

"The dream was to create a sense of community, of family," Orsuto said. "I would hear horror stories about people having to switch apartments right before exams or facing problems with no one to take an interest in their lives. I wanted to start a center where people would feel at home."

Since 1986, more than 100 students from 20 countries have lived at the center, which can accomodate roughly 16 people at any given time. Though 45 percent come from the United States, the remainder represents a wide variety of backgrounds. Two Muslims are living at the center now, and a Baptist minister arrives in the spring.