The news conference was billed for the Waldensian Faculty of Theology, off Piazza Cavour and not far from the Vatican.
Given that the Waldensians are a small Protestant church born out of a 12th-century reform movement within the Catholic Church, one was curious.
The news conference was intended to promote a "shadow synod", planned by a group of reform-minded Catholics calling themselves the "Synod of the People of God" (SPOG).
The group represented more than 300 Catholic organisations and networks from Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia.
The people gathered to speak on behalf of SPOG (www.shadow-synod.net) seemed a peaceable and mild-mannered lot but their message was distinctly controversial - so much so that they had been unable to find a Catholic building where they could hold meetings.
The "shadow synod", of course, was intended to run parallel to the current Vatican Synod being held on the theme of "The Bishop: Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World".
Put simply, SPOG reformers argue that the official synod is fundamentally undemocratic since "it is closed to lay participation".
They add that the 280 bishops and cardinals are not addressing "the serious problems in the church today".
SPOG is nothing less than a Catholic version of People Power arguing that "all members of the church are the people of God" and "all voices are equally important".
At the end of its four-day meeting, SPOG even had the temerity to send a delegation to the office of Belgian Cardinal Jan Schotte, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, to present a statement.
If and when Cardinal Schotte reads the statement, he will be in for a surprise. Among other things SPOG calls for an end to discrimination in Catholic Church leadership.
It says: "All offices, including the diaconate, the ministerial priesthood, the episcopate and the papacy should be open to all baptised Catholics, male or female, married or single, gay or straight, young or old, those of all races, ethnic or linguistic groups."
Just to underline one aspect of this point, Women's Ordination Worldwide - www.wow2001.org, - posted up banners close to the Vatican last weekend urging "ordain women" in various languages.
In addition to the above mentioned, SPOG calls on the Catholic Church to radically rethink its teachings on "the issues of sexuality and reproduction", to allow the use of condoms in fighting HIV/AIDS, to repeal Cardinal Ratzinger's Dominus Jesus document of last autumn, to allow for the election of bishops and other leaders, and to renounce its secular and jurisdictional powers.
It adds: "Church leaders should have the right and opportunity to share the life experiences of the rest of the community, i.e. there should be no mandatory states of life such as required clerical celibacy".
If Cardinal Schotte bothers to read the statement, one could well imagine him (or indeed any other member of the Curia) inquiring as to precisely what justifies such an outspoken and defiant reform programme from a group of 50 volunteer lay people.
SPOG has an answer - "sensus fidelium" or the sense of faith of the people. SPOG can even point to Vatican II for a theological justification of its stance: "The body of the faithful as a whole, annointed by the Holy One (cf. 1 John 2,20.27) cannot err in matters of belief."
Thanks to a supernatural sense of the faith which characterises the people as a whole, it manifests this unerring quality when "from the bishops down to the last member of the laity" it shows universal agreement in matters of faith and morals.
"By this sense of faith which is aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, God's People accepts not the word of human beings but the very word of God (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2,13, Lumen Gentium)."
Given that Pope John Paul has often argued that church teaching cannot mirror the deliberative processes typcial of a democracy, it comes as no surprise to hear that Cardinal Schotte has yet to reply to the Synod of the People of God.
Even if the People of God do not hear from the Holy See, however, one suspects that the Holy See will be hearing from them.
The debate is on.