Where did the Catholic Church get the authority to compile the Bible?

I believe our anti Catholic ranter David has writings of the new testament confused with the Gathering of all the hundreds of letters that were circulating in that part of the world then, all claiming to be Apostolic. So yes he's correct that the last letter by the Apostles of the Bible was written in 96Ad. But it was the Catholic Church that was given the job of deciphering false from truth and with out Tradition that would have been a nearly impossible job.Being as it was from all the various copies of letters and traditions from all over the world that were brought together to agree upon the correct books for the Bible. Just as it was the Catholic Churches role to protect the truth and show who the true followers of Christ were after pentecost as just as today there were many various beliefs being taught , which shows the problem the Apostles faced,and why Paul had to write the words if you receive any other Gospel than what we bring and teach it is false. And yes for the bible geeks i know those are not the exact words but there darn well accurate as to what he was saying.