But this is strange. Normally for two thousand years when one asked "where is the Catholic Church" the answer was to point to the Bishop in his Cathedral and say "there is the Catholic Church".
What if the guy on the street you asked were an Arian or a Donatist? Wouldn't he have pointed to their Basilica, and said "there is the Catholic Church", and then added: "beware of those heretics, over there"? I'm not sure that it was as easy as you say, always and everywhere.
If someone asks me for my religion, I don't just answer "I am a Catholic". I add that I believe that most who call themselves Catholic aren't. There are those "who say they are apostles, and are not, and" I have "found them liars". (
Rev 2:2)