protestants and catholics

The division between Protestant and Catholic Christians became apparent about five hundred years ago.
It seems to me that what unites us is greater than what divides us.
The Catholic Church has defended the sanctity of life through two thousand years.
But in recent times I can't help feeling it was the Protestants of America who led the way in showing us how to have the courage of our convictions in defending the unborn child and all who are vulnerable against the culture of death implicit in abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The Catholic reverence for the word of God in the Bible is a treasure of humanity and has led to the foundation of Western education, the university system and the availability of schooling for all.
But it is often Protestants who really know the Bible and can speak of it most readily with wisdom, insight and holiness.
I hold with the English writer CS Lewis in his considerations of the divisions between Catholics and Protestants.
His simple comment was something along the lines of: "What wonderful opportunities our differences give us to show charity towards each other."
If some Protestants have reservations about the Catholic reverence for the blessed virgin Mary, why then this may be a helpful counsel of caution for us with regard to those who include themselves in our number and who, rather adventurously it often seems, claim to be getting direct messages from the blessed mother.
If Catholics insist on the ancient unity of the church, this too may be helpful for Protestants whose free thinking interpretations of scriptural authority, may tend sometimes towards fragmentation.
Between believing Catholics and believing Protestants there is very little difference.
We complete each other.