Witnesses of Hope
Mission Report 2024-2025
The 2024-2025 academic year was marked by significant moments of grace, starting with the proclamation by Pope Francis of the Jubilee of Hope in December 2024, as well as change — for the Church and for The Lay Centre.
A few months into the Jubilee, we joined the Church in gathering to mourn the death of Pope Francis and then again, a few weeks later, to rejoice in the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first pope to have visited The Lay Centre as a cardinal on May 14, 2024. These landmark events profoundly shaped our daily routines and swept us up in the momentum and intensity of these moments of global significance.
During this time, The Lay Centre welcomed a new director, Filipe Domingues, who succeeded founding director Donna Orsuto in January 2025, launched a new website, and unveiled a new logo. By the end of 2025, plans were underway to mark another significant moment — the 40th anniversary of the founding of The Lay Centre in 2026.
In communion with the Holy Father and the universal Church, we chose as our theme for the 2024-2025 academic year, “Witnesses of Hope,” holding ourselves to our commitment to be visible signs of unity, closeness, devotion and truthful collaboration.
Laity in the World
Our residential community is at the heart of The Lay Centre. Here is an overview of the academic year 2024-2025.
23 nationalities
28 residents
11 specializations
Countries Represented
The countries represented include: Argentina, India, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Ethiopia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom, U.S.A.
Lay Leadership
Orientation Week
In preparation for the Jubilee of Hope, The Lay Centre held an Orientation Week in the spirit of pilgrimage, starting September 24, 2024, with Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, celebrated by Father Agnello Stoia, OFM Conv. Then, participants attended a session on women in leadership at the office of Caritas Internationalis and visited the Catacombs of Priscilla.
Topics for the rest of the week included safeguarding, synodality, and research and academic skills. The week concluded with a visit to the Church of San Clemente and the Roman Houses in the Celio neighbourhood.
Summer Lay Leadership Program
The Lay Centre hosted young professionals from 15 countries for its fifth Summer Lay Leadership Program, July 4-11. The program, funded through a Lilly Foundation grant and grounded in Catholic spirituality and social teaching, is co-sponsored by the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago.
Letty Garcia, associate director at Harvard Business School, designed the program and is the main presenter. Through guest speakers and site visits, participants also learned about synodality, discernment, vocational leadership and sacred art.
Lay Leadership Program
Thanks to our generous benefactors, The Lay Centre coordinated three scholarship-fellowship programs, which are important catalysts for the formation of lay leaders in academia and the professional world of the Church in Rome.
In 2024-2025, this program provided full or partial financial support to 12 participants from Argentina, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.
Laity in the Church
Autumn Community Retreat
We started the academic year with a retreat on the theme, “Witnesses of Hope,” at the Capuchin convent in Frascati, outside Rome.
Father Francisco Martins, SJ, a biblical scholar and professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, led the retreat and drew on various stories in Scripture to speak about virtue. Participants reflected on their role as lay people to be messengers of the Gospel and messengers of hope in an often hopeless world.
Community Evenings on Hope
The weekly community evenings at The Lay Centre are opportunities for community members to gather around the Eucharist, have dinner and learn from a guest speaker. This year, more than 40 guest speakers offered reflections on the year’s theme, “Witnesses of Hope.”
They elaborated on one of the four topics in the pope’s declaration of the jubilee: restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to renewal and rebirth; recovering a sense of universal fraternity through hope; contemplating with hope the beauty of creation and caring for our common home; hope as a sing of unity and harmonious diversity.
Spring Community Retreat
Fr. Daniel Huang, missiology professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, led 27 members of The Lay Centre community on a retreat on the theme, “Graces of the Jubilee Year 2025,” at Casa Divin Maestro in Ariccia, outside Rome. Fr. Huang encouraged participants to grow in their relationship with God and in their understanding of hope as a grace and a virtue.
Pilgrimage of the Seven Churches
About 20 people joined The Lay Centre community in the 25-km Pilgrimage of the Seven Churches February 9. Promoted by St. Philip Neri in the 16th century, the historic pilgrimage is intended to help people grow in prayer, joy and community.
Closing Liturgy:
“Remembering the Gifts of Baptism”
Archbishop Carlo Maria Polvani, secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, celebrated Mass at The Lay Centre to conclude the academic year, May 21. The Mass was intended to draw attention to the gifts of baptism and to each Christian’s baptismal call.
Laity in Dialogue
Five Alumni Defend Doctoral Dissertations
Loredana Fabijanic successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled, “Religious and National Identity: An Analysis of Matters of national-Catholicism in the Student Population in Croatia Born 1995-2005” at the Angelicum in November 2024.
Mirticeli Dias de Medeiros successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, “The History of the Ancient Church in Brazilian Media Coverage: Constructions on Poverty and Martyrdom,” at the Pontifical Gregorian University in May 2025.
Maria Teresa de Ávila successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled, “The Transformative Power of Charity,” at the Angelicum in June 2025.
José de Jesús Quiróz García and Mateo Villarreal defended their doctoral dissertations in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross respectively.
Meetings with Pope Leo XIV
Both our current and former directors met Pope Leo XIV: Filipe Domingues during the pope’s first meeting with journalists and Donna Orsuto during an audience with participants of a congress organized by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life.
Founding Director Named to Dicastery for Divine Worship
The Lay Centre’s founding director, Donna Orsuto, was appointed by Pope Francis as a member of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Sacraments on January 11, 2025.
A Pilgrimage on Synodality
The Lay Centre partnered with FADICA to organize a pilgrimage for FADICA members on the theme, “Journey in Synodality,” November 10-16, 2024. The itinerary included prayer, meetings with Vatican officials and journalists, as well as training sessions. Pope Francis met with the pilgrims and expressed his gratitude for the support FADICA provides to the Holy See and other Church initiatives.
Open Day: Dies Academicus
Five members of The Lay Centre community presented their research in psychology, poetry, theology, Church teaching and safeguarding to visitors at The Lay Centre’s Open Day and Dies Academicus on November 30. The presentations are available on The Lay Centre’s YouTube channel.
A Journey of Hope
A public event May 27 on the theme, “Journey of Hope,” featured three speakers from the Holy Land — Sarah Bernstein, Fr. David Mark Neuhaus, SJ, Safa Younes — each representing one of the three Abrahamic religions, for a discussion on hope for peace in the Middle East. The event was held as part of The Lay Centre’s yearlong program for the Jubilee of Hope.
Loyola Chicago and Jesuit Refugee Service
The Lay Centre welcomed a group of students and faculty from Loyola University Chicago, led by Lay Centre alumnus Michael Canaris, for a session June 6 with Jesuit Refugee Service titled, “Crossing Borders with Disponibilità.” The speakers witnessed the ways in which accompaniment and availability can cross borders and build bridges among people.
Rome Seminar for ACCU Officers
In partnership with the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, The Lay Centre organized the first intensive seminar for mission officers of Catholic institutions of higher learning, July 13-17. The object was to offer participants an intensive experience of dialogue, spiritual reflection and exploration of the Church’s evolving mission.
