ROME — Lay Centre students welcomed guests for the second annual Lay Centre “Open Day” March 3. Despite the dreary, rainy morning, The Lay Centre offered a warm welcome to visiting lay students.

The “Open Day” is an opportunity to introduce The Lay Centre to lay students at pontifical universities in Rome and to create a lay community that extends beyond the walls of The Lay Centre.

The Open Day was a reflection of Rome’s international character with more than nine countries represented, including Ethiopia, Syria and Brazil. As is common in international gatherings, no one, except the lone Roman, spoke their mother tongue; the lingua franca was Italian, just as it is at the pontifical universities.

The conversation focused on the perceptions, challenges, roles and future of the laity, not only within the pontifical universities, but also in the global Church. Many guests shared how their commitment to live out their baptismal call to be lay Catholics was often questioned or misunderstood by others.

Despite the sometimes limited role of laity in the Church or the perception of the lay vocation as a “lesser vocation,” the students were optimistic about the future. Several had been sent by their bishops to study in Rome and were looking forward to returning to their dioceses to share what they learned. Others expressed a desire to continually deepen their faith, in order to be holy Catholic men and women in the secular world.

Some visitors said they looked forward to returning to The Lay Centre to benefit from faith formation events.