“Liberal Catholic apologists in America endeavor to save the reputation of their church by pointing to certain popes who tried to protect the Jews from excessive persecution by Christian princes. They lay the blame for anti-Semitism in the past on the undeveloped condition of society and trade rivalry.
“The two main changes that came about as a result of the Protestant Reformation concerned: l) the reassertion of the true faith in Christ and His saving work; 2) a new culture of freedom in the social order.
“What the Catholic Church is hoping and working for… is the reestablishment… of the ‘Real State,’ a rigid hierarchical system wherein inferiors are subject to superiors. In this system each individual, like a cell in a body, must humbly submit to his fate and occupy his “natural place” which is allotted to him from birth and have no desire to get away from it.
The time is World War II. Rex Madden is an American flier in the European campaign who loses his courage after seeing his companions meet death in the skies. Fear overwhelms him.