According to critic John H. Randall III, "The emphasis in this passage is on forms, on guidance, on discipline; what is wanted is ritual and the ordering of life which ritual brings with it." Latour is the embodiment of order and ritual, and he sets upon his duties to impose order on the New Mexico diocese. The diversity of the Southwest, however, presents several challenges. The Indians still adhere to their spiritual beliefs@ — a fact that Latour recognizes and respects. The Mexicans have blended superstitions into their Catholicism. The majority of whites in the region are Protestant.
Latour's character is introduced as he wanders lost in the desert. Analogies may be drawn to the Israelites searching for the Promised Land, or Jesus Christ's Lenten exile in the desert. As he thirsts for water, the Mexican village of Agua Secreta (literally translated as "Hidden Water") thirsts for Catholic renewal. In another section of the novel, Father Vaillant tells Latour of his encounter with a Pima Indian, who shows Vaillant a cave where the Indians have kept a chalice and other items used to celebrate the Catholic Mass. Vaillant remarks to Latour:
To me, that is the situation in a parable. The Faith, in the wild frontier, is like a buried treasure; they guard it, but they do not know how to use it to their soul's salvation. A word, a prayer, a service, is all that is needed to set free those souls in bondage.
