The presence of the ancient and thriving Eastern Catholic churches of North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia at the Second Vatican Council awakened the Church to how its previous views of universal uniformity, particularly through colonial latinizations, seriously damaged the catholicity of the Church. Despite this awakened consciousness, post-conciliar theologians such as Avery Dulles wrestle with the challenges of Catholic identity in a globalized world. He claims that while “the Council wished to respect the sensitivities of Eastern Catholics who… do not like to be called Roman,” in authentic Catholic theology, “Roman Catholic” recognizes that “Rome is the centre, the principle of unity; Catholic is the periphery, the principle of diversity.” '

My dissertation argues that catholicity actually pertains to the whole and, therefore, cannot be located at the periphery of the Roman center, but between the peripheries of all local churches. This hermeneutical shift to the interstices necessitates an epistemological shift to an interstitial perspective. Using ethnography and postcolonial theory, this perspective illumines how these “third spaces” bear a fuller manifestation of the Church’s catholicity.