What about the millions of masses, prior to the advent of English mass which were said IN LATIN? What use were the Bible readings THEN, when no-one even spoke or understood the language? What benefit were the "Bible readings" to common parishoners who had no idea, FOR CENTURIES, what the priests were even saying ?
Even today, the priest reads the words as if they were "magic incantations". There is NO TEACHING regarding what the scriptures are about, what their context is, how it relates to other scriptures. This is how the Roman Catholic Church pays lip service to God's Holy Word while teaching unscriptural LIES like "it's a sin to eat meat on Friday", "there is a place between heaven and hell called 'purgatory'" (which you can BUY your way out of) , "Mary is the intecessor between man and Christ" etc etc etc
speaking directly from fundamentalist talking points.
Fundamentalists engage in Theological debate with Catholics for the exact same reason Jesus endlessly debated with The Pharisees. To correct their man-made religion of "tradition", which was designed to keep people (and their money and their children) in bondage to THEM, and THEIR teachings. Fundamentalists want people to know that Catholic Doctrine is false for the same exact reason Jesus wanted common people to know the true Gospel of Jesus, and that it was at odds with what the powerful, organized, wealthy, elite Pharisees were "teaching".
This is TOTAL baloney at best and a FLAT OUT LIE at worst.
Wait, first you com,plain that Catholics don't read the bible and that priests claim only they can understand the bible. Then, when you find out Catholics do read the bible you resort to saying that the bible has to be read in a special way for it to have meaning and that Catholics don't have your ``secret formula'' for reading the bible the correct way. So, it isn't priests claiming only they understand the bible, it's you claiming that the bible has to be read in a certain way to have benefit.