Sermon by Mather Attracts Crowds to Syracuse Chapel

Crowds jammed Syracuse University's Hondricks Chapel yesterday morning to hear Kirtley F. Mather, professor of Geology, hammer away at "the fallacy of guilt by association" and imply criticism of the Catholic Church.

Mather had originally been scheduled to speak at a Syracuse inter-faith banquet last night. He withdrew after he learned that Father Gannon Ryan, leader of the Catholic denomination at the University and alumni were urging Charles Noble. Syracuse Dean, to cancel the Mather appearance.

Mather gave the following account:

Noble called Mather last Monday, to inform the Geology professor that objection was being raised about his appearance because his name appeared on the Harvard Reducators list. Mather told Noble that in that case he wouldn't go. Noble answered that Syracuse believed in academic freedom, but that it feared repercussions if Mather appeared at the banquet. He requested that Mather appear at the chapel service instead.

Mather said he was "satisfied with the now arrangement . . . I probably had three times the audience I would have had at the banquet.

In his Sunday morning sermon, Mather noted that "in no country where the Protestant Church has been predominant, has Communism been able to take over the government." The main theme of his talk, completely changed from the one he had planned on "Religion in Higher Education" for the banquet, concerned the close relationship between Judaic-Christian development and the origins of democracy.

Last night Mather pointed out that Harry J. Carman, Dean Emeritus of Columbia, who is on the Columbia Reducators list but is a lay Catholic, appeared to speak at the inter-faith banquet without objection. The Reducator lists are tallies of faculty members alleged to be associated with alleged Communist or "fellow-traveler" organization.