DUH, EVERYONE knows that Jesus, Mary and the apostles were Jewish. It is they who started what became the Catholic church. For hundreds of years all KNOWN christians were Catholics and the church eventually became known as the ROMAN Catholic church. Until Martin Luther came along.....
I'm sure the Orthodox Church would be surprised to know they were founded by Martin Luther.
No, the believers in Ephesus were never known as Catholic, neither were the believers in Thessalonika, neither were the Believers in Damascus.
In fact, NONE of the believers mentioned in the New Testament were ever known as CATHOLIC in the sense of Roman Catholic. We all know the original term Catholic meant universal, not related to Romanism. It referred to the universal body of Believers who placed their trust in Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
< If someone were to say that the body of believes in all the early Chruches were 'catholic' in the sense of being a part of the universal Chruch, that would be accurate, but to say they were Catholic related to what is called Roman Catholicism, that would be wrong.