When Pia di Solenni began studies at a prestigious pontifical university in Rome in 1994, she often entered class as the lone laywoman amid seminarians and religious from all over the world.

With a host of inquiring eyes trained upon her, her first panicked thought was, “What am I doing here?”

She found her purpose at Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the “Angelicum”), bonding with the few other laywomen at the school, earning a scholarship to the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Santa Croce) and graduating in 2000 with a doctorate in sacred theology. She had fallen in love with theology as an undergrad at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., but had no clear idea what she would do as a laywoman with a doctoral degree.

Today she is director of life and women's issues at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.

“Theology is all about truth, leading to the truth,” says di Solenni. “Even if you don'd do anything professionally with your education, you will be a better person for it.”

The notion of laypersons taking advanced theology degrees — and studying in hallowed halls once reserved for men preparing for the priesthood — has gained greater acceptance since the Second Vatican Council, which stressed the priesthood of the laity that all Christians share through baptism.

At their meeting last month, the U.S. bishops acknowledged the professional role of laypersons in the life of the Church, voting to go forward with a document on lay ministry titled “Co-Workers in the Vineyard: Resources for the Development of Lay Ecclesial Ministry.”

There are some 30,000 lay ministers working in full- or part-time paid positions, such as music directors, liturgists, catechists and youth ministry, the bishops reported. In discussions about the document, bishops spoke about the need for improving qualifications and screening processes for laypersons who represent the Church in an official capacity. A demand for credentials no doubt will lead more lay ministers to pursue advanced theology.

Yet studying theology as a layperson involves certain sacrifices, and is misunderstood even by those who don'd know that STD stands for Doctor of Sacred Theology.

Called to Understand

Cynthia Toolin had a similar experience to di Solenni's when she began studies in 1988 at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn. She had just become a Catholic that year, with her husband and the elder of her two daughters as sponsors, and “had a hunger to know more about God and the Church.”

“Back then, there may have been another laywoman or man in your class, but everybody else was a seminarian,” she recalls.

She stuck with it, taking 90 credits in theology for a master's degree in 1995, and going to the Dominican House of Studies in the nation's capital for a licentiate in moral theology. Toolin now is back where her theological odyssey began, teaching seminarians and laypersons at Holy Apostles.

“I love God and the Church greatly,” she says, “and believe I am called to teach theology as it is supposed to be taught — in line with the magisterium.”

The story of Michael and Anna Moreland, who met while taking graduate theology courses at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., has a different twist. Most of their fellow students were laypersons preparing for teaching positions or ministry within the Church. The students regularly gathered for discussions or to pray the Divine Office, and formed social-action groups.

Yet the Morelands, who were married in 2000 and are both short a dissertation for a doctorate, have chosen career paths that do not draw directly on their theology studies. Michael is a lawyer with a firm in Washington, D.C., and Anna is a stay-at-home mother of their two young children.

“Theology — like any discipline in the humanities — forces you to become a good reader and writer, and those are skills I use as a lawyer,” Michael says. “I also represent the Catholic Church in a variety of matters, and my theology background makes me more familiar with some of the issues I confront than otherwise might be the case.”

Anna has turned down two tenure-track teaching positions at Catholic universities in recent years.

“I spend my days between the park and the pool, so there's not much theologizing to be done in those settings,” she says. “But I imagine theology will come in handy in parenting later on.”

It already is a part of their marriage, increasing their appreciation of the sacramental aspects that set it apart from a mere civil contract, she adds. “We have recently become more intentional about cultivating Pope John Paul II's sacramental imagination — that is language that I wouldn'd have used before my theological studies.”

Practical Science

For Toolin, who holds a doctorate in sociology, pursuing theology entailed giving up her insurance job and moving with her husband to a trailer park outside Washington, D.C., so she could attend the Dominican House of Studies for two years.

Her husband had recently suffered an injury that made it impossible for him to work, and their two grown daughters were married.

“My husband said he thought I was called to teach graduate-level theology, so we picked up and moved,” Toolin recalls.

Di Solenni lived on a shoestring for six years as a student in Rome.

“The exchange rate was very good then, so it wasn'd that difficult,” she says. “But it was tough personally. There were times when I was sick of everything and ready to quit.”

After completing course work for their doctoral degrees, the Morelands decided they were not set professionally. Michael went to the University of Michigan Law School while Anna worked in campus ministry to support them.

Studying theology was impractical in some ways for a young couple starting out in life, Michael admits. But, he adds, “Most things worth doing in life — falling in love, having children, participating in liturgy — don'd fall squarely into the ‘practical’ category.”

Toolin sees the issue in terms of eternity.

“Theology deals with the things of God and his will for man,” she says. “The repercussions of theology are eternal: Where will you spend the next life? Will you see God or not — the beatific vision or hell? Theology is the most practical of sciences.”

Stephen Vincent writes from Wallingford, Connecticut.