Early '97? - before the first Catholics album was released, but after it was recorded, methinks? I remember someone on the old Abstract Plain board mentioning that they were at the first show where Frank's band was billed as "The Catholics".
I was at a Frank Black show at the Reptile House in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 5th, 1996. It was Good Friday. Frank refered to his bandmates as the Catholics. At the time I thought that it was in reference to it being Good Friday. This is the first time that I had heard them refered to as 'the Catholics'.