Tony Warren T he question is often asked, why did the early Church fathers refer to the Church as Catholic. Particularly, the Apostle's Creed which is truly an ecumenical symbol of faith and is dated to about a century after the New Testament was completed. It is important to understand that the term 'Catholic Church' simply refers to the universal Church of believers. The name catholic in our day denotes a denomination, but in the early Church it was simply a title meaning universal and had nothing to do with a denomination in Rome. There were no denominations.
Denominations are an invention of man.
There was only the universal Church, not a Roman Church and a Protestant Church, but one Universal Church. In the big picture, this hasn't really changed today. There is one Holy Universal Church, and it's existing all over the world in many denominations. It has nothing to do with what is the Roman Catholic Church today. And really, there is no good reason to change it.