Based on personal correspondence sent by lay Catholics to their bishops and lay non-Christian to the Vatican, at the occasion of the council debates on other religions, this paper looks through the many self-definitions given to one's Catholic identity or to what Catholicity means in the eyes of others.
These unsolicited pieces challenged the role initially assigned to laity. As intimate sources, private correspondence conveys how individuals reflect on, stand for, mediate their faith to a representative of the Church authority. It epitomizes both ongoing ecclesiological changes and the globalization of debates, as spaces for discussion remultiply. Reclaiming agency for protagonists on the margins, it also raises issues of method: what representativeness for a mass of unrelated one-time letters, written by happy few? Why their study is nonetheless essential?