BERLIN (Reuters) - With Pope Benedict keen to bring Christian churches closer, these should be heady times for Catholics and Protestants eager to bridge age-old differences and pray and work together more frequently.Rome has never had a pope as familiar with Protestant thinking as the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a German theologian well versed in reformer Martin Luther's writings.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, his top aide for ecumenical dialogue, is another theologian from Germany, where the roughly even balance of Protestants and Catholics makes good relations between churches more important than in other countries.
Germany's leading Protestant prelate, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, sees these as good omens but doubts they will translate into a burst of breakthroughs soon.
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