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👍🏼👍🏼 To Matthew.

The only one who can “unite the clans” is a valid, licit, holy Pope who commands Christ’s Authority. There are lesser leaders here and there, each with their group of followers or detractors.  It’s like we have Matthew, Luke, John, Paul, Timothy, etc., but no Peter. 

When there was no prophet in Israel, the Scripture tells us each one did what was right in his own sight.  A criticism to be sure, but really, what else was there to do for those living through that time?  One householder hired his own priest.  Another kept the Faith as well as possible in the home.  Yet others traveled long distances.  Still more waited years in the hope that a man of God would stop in on his way to a destination.  Some gave up and merged with the surrounding pagan cultures.  Some practiced no religion at all, but retained a few morals out of habit.  Everyone disagreed with one another.  It’s a God-ordained time of testing, then as now. 
Our job is to persevere until the end, not to be “right” as to the year of Missal, when to sit, stand, or kneel, whether the ladies should wear hats or veils, who, if anyone, is the pope, and whose position is right, sedevacantist? R&R?  Is Benedict still pope?  Maybe pope Michael?  Some of us tend to Tradcuмenicism, others are staunchly dogmatic about this or that.  The leaders we have can and should assist us, but so far as binding the consciences of individual souls under pain of mortal sin in questionable matters, no Traditional leader has that authority.
And if no leader, ie. Cardinal, Bishop, Priest has that authority, certainly, nobody lower down in the hierarchy has such authority.  A wise leader serves as a teacher, a mentor, an advisor, one to whom others hold themselves voluntarily accountable.  A leader who deceives himself into thinking he needs no one is certain to fall or wander hopelessly off course.  The same goes for the scattered sheep.  Wisdom is needed in discerning which leader to follow and to what extent? Although scattered, the sheep need to make contact with one another even if they choose to shelter in different sheepfolds.  The sheep who wanders off entirely alone, whether out of over confidence,despair, or curiosity is sure to fall off a cliff, starve to death, or become the wolves’ dinner. 
The one thing that all the clans can do is to be faithful to the Rosary and the Brown Scapular as Our Lady of Fatima instructs us.  In so doing, it is impossible to be wrong.

Excellent post, Seraphina.

Yes, one of the most memorable chapters in Judges is Chapter 17 (I have pasted that chapter, as well as chapter 18, below) because it is SO OBVIOUS a parallel to our own time. "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every one did that which seemed right to himself." just like today "There is no pope*, so every Trad did that which he seemed right to himself." (*we can argue there is no pope literally or virtually: sedes and non-sedes can agree that we don't have a pope doing his job, or a good Catholic pope, or a pope who acts like a pope, etc.)

But most importantly, the result is almost EXACTLY the same today vs. the time of the Judges: both are times of confusion, when the sheep were left to their own devices, some of them getting it HORRIBLY WRONG. I mean, here is an Israelite family, cast and portrayed as one of the good guys seeking to do what is right. This was not a villain; on the contrary Scripture almost goes out of its way to cast this person as being of good will ("Now I know God will do me good, since I have a priest of the race of the Levites."), but the objective truth, meanwhile, is that he was setting up a new false god, creating a new idol, like a blasted pagan! This struck me HARD when I read it 20 or 30 years ago. But Scripture leads one to understand and believe that this is a direct result, or a casualty, of the leadership vacuum that was a sad reality at the time. It's hard to draw any other conclusion from this.


Judges Chapter 17-18

The history of the idol of Michas, and the young Levite.

[1] There was at that time a man of mount Ephraim whose name was Michas, [2] Who said to his mother: The eleven hundred pieces of silver, which thou hadst put aside for thyself, and concerning which thou didst swear in my hearing, behold I have, and they are with me. And she said to him: Blessed be my son by the Lord. [3] So he restored them to his mother, who said to him: I have consecrated and vowed this silver to the Lord, that my son may receive it at my hand, and make a graven and a molten god, so now I deliver it to thee. [4] And he restored them to his mother: and she took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith, to make of them a graven and a molten god, which was in the house of Michas. [5] And he separated also therein a little temple for the god, and made an ephod, and theraphim, that is to say, a priestly garment, and idols: and he filled the hand of one of his sons, and he became his priest.

[5] "Filled the hand": That is, appointed and consecrated him to the priestly office.

[6] In those days there was no king in Israel, but every one did that which seemed right to himself. [7] There was also another young man of Bethlehem Juda, of the kindred thereof: and he was a Levite, and dwelt there. [8] Now he went out from the city of Bethlehem, and desired to sojourn wheresoever he should find it convenient for him. And when he was come to mount Ephraim, as he was on his journey, and had turned aside a little into the house of Michas, [9] He was asked by him whence he came. And he answered: I am a Levite of Bethlehem Juda, and I am going to dwell where I can, and where I shall find a place to my advantage. [10] And Michas said: Stay with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee every year ten pieces of silver, and a double suit of apparel, and thy victuals.

[11] He was content, and abode with the man, and was unto him as one of his sons. [12] And Michas filled his hand, and had the young man with him, for his priest, saying: [13] Now I know God will do me good, since I have a priest of the race of the Levites.

The expedition of the men of Dan against Lais: in their way they rob Michas of his priest and his gods.

[1] In those days there was no king in Israel, and the tribe of Dan sought them an inheritance to dwell in: for unto that day they had not received their lot among the other tribes. [2] So the children of Dan sent five most valiant men of their stock and family from Saraa and Esthaol, to spy out the land, and to view it diligently: and they said to them: Go, and view the land. They went on their way, and when they came to mount Ephraim, they went into the house of Michas, and rested there: [3] And knowing the voice of the young man the Levite, and lodging with him, they said to him: Who brought thee hither? what dost thou here? why wouldst thou come hither? [4] He answered them: Michas hath done such and such things for me, and hath hired me to be his priest. [5] Then they desired him to consult the Lord, that they might know whether their journey should be prosperous, and the thing should have effect.

[1] "Not received": They had their portions assigned them, Jos. 19. 40. But, through their own sloth, possessed as yet but a small part of it. See Judges 1. 34.

[6] He answered them: Go in peace, the Lord looketh on your way, and the journey that you go. [7] So the five men going on came to Lais: and they saw how the people dwelt therein without any fear, according to the custom of the Sidonians, secure and easy, having no man at all to oppose them, being very rich, and living separated, at a distance from Sidon and from all men. [8] And they returned to their brethren in Saraa and Esthaol, who asked them what they had done? to whom they answered: [9] Arise, and let us go up to them: for we have seen the land which is exceeding rich and fruitful: neglect not, lose no time: let us go and possess it, there will be no difficulty. [10] We shall come to a people that is secure, into a spacious country, and the Lord will deliver the place to us, in which there is no want of any thing that groweth on the earth.

[11] There went therefore of the kindred of Dan, to wit, from Saraa and Esthaol, six hundred men, furnished with arms for war, [12] And going up they lodged in Cariathiarim of Juda: which place from that time is called the camp of Dan, and is behind Cariathiarim. [13] From thence they passed into mount Ephraim. And when they were come to the house of Michas, [14] The five men, that before had been sent to view the land of Lais, said to the rest of their brethren: You know that in these houses there is an ephod, and theraphim, and a graven, and a molten god: see what you are pleased to do. [15] And when they had turned a little aside, they went into the house of the young man the Levite, who was in the house of Michas: and they saluted him with words of peace.

[16] And the six hundred men stood before the door, appointed with their arms. [17] But they that were gone into the house of the young man, went about to take away the graven god, and the ephod, and the theraphim, and the molten god, and the priest stood before the door, the six hundred valiant men waiting not far off. [18] So they that were gone in took away the graven thing, the ephod, and the idols, and the molten god. And the priest said to them: What are you doing? [19] And they said to him: Hold thy peace and put thy finger on thy mouth and come with us, that we may have thee for a father, and a priest. Whether is better for thee, to be a priest in the house of one man, or in a tribe and family in Israel? [20] When he had heard this, he agreed to their words, and took the ephod, and the idols, and the graven god, and departed with them.

[21] And when they were going forward, and had put before them the children and the cattle and all that was valuable, [22] And were now at a distance from the house of Michas, the men that dwelt in the houses of Michas gathering together followed them, [23] And began to shout out after them. They looked back, and said to Michas: What aileth thee? Why dost thou cry? [24] And he answered: You have taken away my gods which I have made me and the priest, and all that I have, and do you say: What aileth thee? [25] And the children of Dan said to him: See thou say no more to us, lest men enraged come upon thee, and thou perish with all thy house.

[26] And so they went on the journey they had begun. But Michas seeing that they were stronger than he, returned to his house. [27] And the six hundred men took the priest, and the things we spoke of before, and came to Lais to a people that was quiet and secure, and smote them with the edge of the sword: and the city was burnt with fire, [28] There being no man at all who brought them any succour, because they dwelt far from Sidon, and had no society or business with any man. And the city was in the land of Rohob: and they rebuilt it and dwelt therein. [29] Calling the name of the city Dan after the name of their father, who was the son of Israel, which before was called Lais. [30] And they set up to themselves the graven idol, and Jonathan the son of Gersam the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests in the tribe of Dan, until the day of their captivity.

[31] And the idol of Michas remained with them all the time that the house of God was in Silo. In those days there was no king in Israel.