The Church has referred to itself as the universal or “Catholic Church” at least since 107 AD (about 10 years after the last book of the New Testament was written), when the term appears in the Letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans:
"Wherever the bishop appear, there let the multitude be; even as wherever Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church."
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-smyrnaeans-hoole.html
We do not know how long they had been using the term "Catholic" before it was included in this letter.
All of this was long before the Council of Nicea and the Nicene Creed from 325 A.D. which states, "We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."
Church is the assembly of the People that God has called together from the ends of the earth.
In Catholic usage, the word "Church" has three inseparable meanings:
+ The People that God gathers in the whole world
+ The local church (diocese)
+ The liturgical (above all Eucharistic) assembly
The Church draws her life from the Word and the Body of Christ, and so herself becomes Christ's Body.
In the Nicene Creed (from 325 A.D.), the Church is professed to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
With love in Christ.
2007-06-10 13:39:52
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answer #2
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answered by imacatholic2 7
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Catholic means universal and it is the only Church that is really universal.
2007-06-10 19:14:51
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answer #3
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answered by James O 7
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