At a weekly community evening April 26, three Lay Centre residents spoke about their experience this past year working for the Holy See. Through the generosity of benefactors, the young professionals were supported as Vatican Fellows by The Lay Centre, which provided a welcoming community setting and professional development while they served in different dicasteries of the Roman Curia.
Alex Campbell, one of the Vatican Fellows, is currently working at the Vatican Secretariat of State in the multilateral section. He said he was surprised with how much effort goes into reaching a consensus on the international political floor, on micro and macro levels. He also noticed the need to give voice to the Church on the international stage, highlighting the special role that the Holy See has as an international mediator.
Joseph Tulloch works in the English section of Vatican News, part of the Dicastery for Communication. He spoke about the differences between Vatican News and other media outlets. Vatican News is translated into 40 languages, including languages spoken by smaller populations, and reaches a large audience worldwide, he said. He commented on Pope Francis’ particular communications style, which privileges informal interviews to external media outlets.
Pedro Weizenmann, who works at the General Secretariat of the Synod, spoke about learning more regarding the meaning of synodal conversion. He referred to a homily of Cardinal Mario Grech, who leads the General Secretariat of the Synod. He spoke about the need of Christians to be learning and listening constantly in order to improve. These attitudes should be cultivated as a Church in its ongoing search for God, he said.
Campbell and Tulloch are from the United Kingdom and Weizenmann is from Brazil.
The community Mass earlier that evening was presided by Father Alexis Ossola, a canon lawyer from the Archdiocese of Paris. He reminded the faithful in his homily that the Easter season means living with the Risen Christ and listening to God’s Word, staying united to Christ. The Risen Christ bestows the real food of life and guides us to knowing the will of the Father, he said.
Contributed: Filip Veber