Ok, so I’ve had to self-edit a few times here, to keep my comments about James White “charitable”–(which is to say, I’ve eliminated any/all comments about him).
I’ll just say this, about the questions you pose:
Debating itself, is naturally inclined to favor Protestantism, because they’ve conveniently (and without authority) reduced 2000 years of the Faith, to the Bible (begging the question–where in the Bible does it claim to be the totality of the Faith? Where in the Bible did Christ ever even prophesy a thing called a Bible (let alone its primacy)? Where in the Bible does it prophesy a divide as significant as the Reformation?–NB: this is extremely significant, because the NT is a reflection of the OT; it is the fulfillment of the OT prophesies. the Church is prophesied, as is the promise of the Holy Spirit eternally accompanying her. The Bible is gift of the Holy Spirit to His Spouse, the Church; the Holy Spirit/advocate/Paraclete WAS prophesied; not the Bible, not Sola Scriptura’, and certainly not a division as significant as the Reformation…note, Christ never even wrote anything down–not a single solitary word–yet from that, we supposedly get a Faith that is reduced to a book (or more accurately, a collection of books)? But Christ did hand pick 12 Apostles (to be expressly contrasted with His disciples, who comprised a larger group of which the former was a subset), and instructed them in the Faith; he taught them…and instructed to do the same…He then sent them His Holy Spirit at the Pentecost to enlighten and inspire them…IOW, he founded a Church–His Church…
…I digress…
The point is that Catholicism is a synthesis of a multitude of sources, all through the Holy Spirit; her doctrines are culled and refined through invoking the Holy Spirit, in prayer, over 2000 years of real challenges to the Church.
A key example is the Council of Trent. After Martin Luther had posted his 95 theses, and commenced his revolution, the Church convened a Council–a gathering of all the Bishops of the world who were duly appointed according to Apostolic Succession (i.e.–the Apostles appointed/ordained their own successors, who did the same, on down the line—each requiring at least 2 other such similarly appointed bishops to confirm their appointment as such). Martin Luther was invited to present his case to the Church (in fact, the ‘party’ was held in his honor). Martin Luther declined to attend, at all.
So the Council invoked the Holy Spirit in humble and sincere prayer–and considered Luther’s contentions in his absence, against existing Church Doctrine and Tradition–and confirmed most of her existing beliefs, but did engage in some reforms (what is wrongly known as the ‘counter-Reformation’–it was THE Reformation).
But the mere fact that Martin Luther cowered from the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit over the Church that Christ founded, is all you need to know about the so called Reformation. If he had Truth on his side, surely he would have been there with bells and whistles (in stark contrast, and by way of counter example, consider St. Joan of Arc, and so many other martyrs, who died in the name of Truth).
Alas, what he had in his heart, must not have been Truth–but something far less honorable.
TBL: the key to defending your faith, is in history.
2000 years of history is hard to explain in 20 second gotcha’ sound bites.
But then the Faith isn’t about smack talk and gotcha moments–it’s about Truth.
FWIW.
