A Warning to Pope Francis.

Father Ed Tomlinson published in the Catholic Herald an illuminated article on what the Church can learn from Anglicanism. Tomlinson is a former Anglican and married priest of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, a personal Catholic diocese for former Anglicans. Tomlinson warns: "Liberalism will tear you apart." And, "Catholics the world over should be watching very carefully.”

According to Tomlinson, Anglicanism's real problem has always been a theological schizophrenia. Quote, "Ask a hundred Anglicans what Anglicanism actually is and expect a hundred answers." He calls the Church of England an umbrella organisation holding together, by virtue of the English Crown, a huge range of competing theologies.

For a long time this diversity was viewed as its strength. But this came to an end through the adoption of synodical governance. Suddenly everything was up for grabs, by virtue of majority vote. The Church of England split up in factions. Tomlinson points out that a democratised deposit of faith tends to favour Barabbas over Jesus."

A second factor that disrupted Anglican unity occurred when the Book of Common Prayer became optional. As a consequence, liturgical communion fell apart. Tomlinson asks, "How can you bring people together in love when there is zero shared praxis between them?"

Tomlinson has little doubt "that orthodoxy unites Christian bodies via shared proclamation of truth, whereas liberalism pulls them apart via ambiguity, worldly agendas and rebellion." The big question from Gloria.TV is: Will Pope Francis and the Vatican understand this?