It depends on what you mean. So context is important.
Catholic can be a proper noun, with a big C, in which case it is the name of a particular religious community. Just like Orthodox.
The word catholic means universal. It is one of the features of Christianity that it is meant to be for everyone, that the Church believed that the Truth that had been revealed in Jusus Christ was meant to save all people. THis is different from some other popular religions at the time - the mystery religions, Judaism, various forms of gnosticism that were around in the early Church. (By the same token, we can see a similar view in some other religions; Islam and Bhuddism are both meant to be “universal”.)
So it was logical for the Christian Church, which saw itself as unified, to call itself Catholic, and describe itself as Catholic.
However, and here is where Catholics and other groups will begin to part in their understanding of history - at this point the kind of political unity under the Bishop of Rome that is seen in the medieval period did not exist in that form. The Church existed in many places, but they were much more independent, although there were certian privaledges and presedents given to some Bishops, especially the seat of Peter.
Eventually, you get in the 11th century-ish, the Great Schism. This was a break between the two major divisions of the Church, East and West. The seat of Rome had begun to claim more and more power and privileges, and the Eastern Bishops, who were not under the political control of Rome, eventually would have no more of it.
At this point, two groups came from what had been one, what we now call the Catholic Church and the Orthodox. But of course
both claim to be catholic and orthodox.
Currantly, the Catholics claim that the Orthodox are part of the Church, while the Orthodox say the Catholics are not.
In the West, the other parts of the Church were pretty firmly under the political control of Rome. However, after some 300 years or so, that political control became less certian, while Rome at the same time developed the doctrines surrounding its special place. This included trying to assert political control over independent nations.
So along comes the various Protestant revolutions, each with their own issues and character. So we have more splits in the unified Church. Many of them, clearly, had a different idea of how the political structure of the Church was meant to work, as well as how it should relate to the secular political powers. They also had a rather different view, in some cases, of what was meant by the unity of the Church than the Catholics or the Orthodox, probably as a result of their own experiences.
But certainly the Germans and the English both considered themselves catholic, as in part of the universal Church meant to save all men. (I am not sure about the Calvinists or the Radicals.) THey also say themselves not as a “new” Church, but as part of a real reformation and continuation of what existed before.
The Catholic Church however, did not consider such groups part of the Church and more (nor did the Orthodox, since they thought the Catholics were out already anyway.)
So today, you will see many who use the term catholic to mean universal in the sense it was meant in the Creed, including Protestants and the Orthodox. The Orthodox are exclusive about it though. THe Catholics also use the term, but insist that it is the same as Catholic, and use it only to include themselves and the Orthodox to some extent.
