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I do not understand how anyone who truly understands the Reformation, and is a faithful student of the Bible, can convert (Cross the Tiber) to Roman Catholicism. I have been a minister for over 30 years, and have never been further aaway from that idea than I am now. It is mystifying!
How do you go from a system of salvation by Grace, to a system of salvation by works?

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Catholics take their teachings from the direct source (Jesus) and from the early Church elders (His disciples...who were the first Catholics, and who were the authors of the Bible). Since then, sects and those of “intellectual vanity” have tried to convince others they have the true knowledge and understanding of the Bible. Jesus, knowing human nature, knew this would happen someday. In time, however, people would eventually yearn for the Eucharist.

Perhaps what mystifies you is that people have free will to choose and wish to “come home”.

His disciples were not the first "Catholics." If you have forgotten, the name of your church is the "Roman" Catholic Church. There is a possibility, though little evidence, that Peter was in Rome. But none of the other Twelve (Paul being a Thirteenth) were ever in Rome.

And, lest you forget, for the first 1000 years of the church, there were four other co-equal patriarchs in Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople. After the Great Schism in AD1054, when the Patriarch of Rome took it upon himself to excommunicate the other four over theological and ecclesiastical issues, not the least was the contention by the Roman Patriarch that he was supreme, he Patriarch of Rome assumed he was the role of Supreme Pontiff. There is a vast part of Orthodox Christendom that disagrees with that position, to say nothing of the millions of Protestants who disagree also.

By the way, the Roman Catholic Church did not give the Church the Bible, God spoke through over 40 authors, and apart from Peter and Paul, were never anywhere near Rome.