WHAT DOES "CATHOLIC" MEAN?
The word "Catholic";  is it Biblical?
The answer to this question depends on what you mean by "BIBLICAL"
The word itself does not present itself in sacred scripture per say, however the "Concept" surely does.
Like many things, just because there is no specific mention of the word in the Biblical writtings does not mean it does not exist. Take for example, the Holy Trinity. That word is nowhere in the Bible, yet surely there IS a trintiy as most Christians would agree on.
The use of the term "catholic" can cause confusion and has generated several questions. The word catholic, with the lowercase "c", means "universal".  According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, the word catholic comes from a Greek word meaning "regarding the whole," or more simply, "universal"   So the catholic church refered to in the creed is the one universal church represented by the body of Christ. It is the body of believers. There are several scriptures which cast light on this universal body of believers.
Please refer to: Romans 12:5, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Colossians 1:16-19, Ephesians 4:3-6 
The combination "the Catholic Church" (he katholike ekklesia) is found for the first time in the letter of St. Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, written about the year 110.
"Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, there is the universal [katholike] Church." Ignatius of Antioch grew up during the time of the apostles.  History tells us that St. Peter was the Bishop of Antioch at this time; in fact, the Church Fathers claim that St. Peter himself ordained Ignatius.
During this time Ignatius would have worshiped with Peter and Paul, lived with or near them, and was an understudy of these special apostles. 
We find  in many ancient manuscripts references to the same word.
"to the bishop of the catholic church in Smyrna" (Letter on the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, xvi c.155) along with such phrases as "the catholic resurrection" (Justin Martyr), "the catholic goodness of God" (Tertullian), "the four catholic winds" (Irenaeus), where we should now speak of "the general resurrection", "the absolute or universal goodness of God", "the four principal winds", etc.   In the Muratorian Fragment (c. 180), it is said of certain heretical writings that they "cannot be received in the Catholic Church". A little later, Clement of Alexandria writes "We say that both in substance and in seeming, both in origin and in development, the primitive and Catholic Church is the only one, agreeing as it does in the unity of one faith" (Stromata, VII, xvii; P. G., IX, 552).  It becomes evident from these and many other quotations the word "Catholic" was well established by the middle of the Third Century AD. Catholic soon became in many cases ,the proper name, of the true Church founded by Christ.
In "Catechismus ad Parochos", which in accordance with a decree of the Council of Trent was drawn up and published in 1566 we read:
The third mark of the Church is that she is Catholic, that is, universal; and justly is she called Catholic, because, as St. Augustine says, 'she is diffused by the splendour of one faith from the rising to the setting sun'. Unlike republics of human institution, or the conventicles of heretics, she is not circumscribed within the limits of any one kingdom, nor confined to the members of any one society of men, but embraces within the amplitude of her love, all mankind, whether barbarians or Scythians, slaves or freemen, male or female.  
St. Cyril of Jerusalem says:
"The Church is called Catholic because she is diffused throughout the whole world [i.e. the habitable world, oikoumenes] from one end of the earth to the other, and because she teaches universally and without curtailment all the truths of faith which ought to be known to men whether they concern visible or invisible things, heavenly things or the things of earth; further because she brings under the yoke of God's true service all races of men, the mighty and the lowly, the learned and the simple; and finally because she tends and heals every kind of sin committed by body or soul and because there is no form of virtue, whether in word or deed or in spiritual gifts of any kind whatever, which she does not possess as her own" (Cateches., xviii, 23; P. G., XXXIII, 1043). The Roman Catholic Church is the Christian community that traces its roots to the apostolic community in Rome and the apostles of Rome, St. Peter and St. Paul. Theunity all Catholics have with the Pope, the bishop of Rome, shows these roots.
HOME