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Nope, I’ve looked. I don’t see the work Catholic in the Bible.

You've said this before and I just haven't got around to responding. There have been A LOT of posts, most of which I haven't gotten around to addressing yet. But since this is about the 3rd or 4th time you've said this, I better address it now rather than later...

Two things before I say anything further. The word "catholic" may not be in the Bible, but neither is "trinity." The Trinity is implied by Scripture, as is the catholicity of the Church established by Christ.

The problem is that many have the tendency to understand the word "catholic" to be a denominational term, like Presbyterian or Baptist. But, in fact, it is the opposite of denominational. Catholic means "universal," and that universality is a quality of the Church that was willed by Jesus Himself, when He said: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to thse close of the age." (Mt. 28:18-20). Such catholicity came as fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies: "all peoples, all nations, and languages serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion" (Dn 7:14).

Jesus gave the Church an authority that was properly His own--one that is extended throughout all time in every place -- always and everywhere.

From the beginning, the same early Christians who wrote and compiled the New Testament used the Greek word katholikos to describe the Church of Jesus Christ. This word comes from kata hole, meaning "pertaining to the whole" or, simply, "universal." In 105 A.D., Ignatius of Antioch wrote to the Christians of Smyrna, "Wherever the bishop appears, let the congregation be there also, just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." We also find this same word in accounts of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, which refers to "the holy and catholic church in every place." These statements have Apostolic authority. Ignatius and Polycarp were disciples of the Apostle John.

The Old Testament prophecy of Malachi can be applied to the Mass: "from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering" (Mal 1:11). This line appears in the earliest Eucharistic prayers, including the one in the Didache, which dates back to 48 A.D.

The primacy of Peter as an authority for this Catholic Church has been discussed already. When he died, the Church filfilled the mandate of Acts 1:20: "For it is written...'His offce let another take.'" Peter has been succeeded in his primacy by others, one of them a man named Clement, who witneesed to Rome's very catholic authority already in the mid-first century! St. Clement wrote--probably as early as 69 A.D., but certainly no later than 96--to discipline a distant congregation in Corinth. As he concluded his remonstration, he said: "You will give us joy and gladness if you render obedience to the things written by us through the Holy Spirit."

Testimony to the primacy of the See of Peter as authority of the Catholic Church is provided by the early Fathers of the Church as well.