Mather Says Syracuse Priest Used Undemocratic, 'Molotov Methods'

In a sharp reply to Syracuse University's Catholic chaplain, Kirtley F. Mather, professor of Geology, said yesterday that the priest practiced methods "reminiscent of Molotov."

Father Ganson F. Ryan wrote a letter to the Syracuse College paper last week explaining why he asked University officials there to withdraw Mather's invitation to speak at an inter-faith banquet three weeks ago.

Mather subsequently spoke at the Syracuse Protestant Chapel services and attacked Ryan's stand. The letter had said that Mather belonged to groups which "violated the principles of democracy."

Replying to Ryan's statements in a letter, Mather said this week that "one member of a committee of several chaplains forcing the majority of that group to withdraw the invitation against their wishes... reminds me of the Soviet Union's use of the votes in the Security Council."

Mather Won't be "Spokesman"

Ryan called Mather a "pedant" whom the priest believed was "unqualified to be presented at the banquet." "However competent this man may be as a geologist," he continued, "he lacks any concept whatsoever of the evil forces that are engulfing the world and bringing suffering and death to tens and thousands of American kids in Korea."

Mather answered that, if he had had any idea that he was invited there to be Ryan's "spokesman," he would have declined the invitation immediately.

"I cannot be a spokesman for anyone but myself," Mather declared. He went on to say that he had assumed he was to present his own views on "Religion and Higher Education," the title of his cancelled speech, as a man of science who was "deeply concerned with matters of religion."

Ryan further charged that the failure of universities to fight Communism within their ranks was a "serious blot on the escutcheon of democracy," because campuses all over the nation are full of "gullible students and educators."

"Gullible Wool-Gatherer"

He said that "this gracious old gentleman may be entirely innocent of formal guilt, but he remains a gullible wool-gatherer." The clergyman also referred to Mather as "naive," and claimed that a man is known "by the folks with whom he travels."

Mather asserted that Ryan did not hear his talk in the Syracuse chapel, where he "explained the distinction between the two conflicts in which the country is engaged: the armed truce between the United States and Russia on one hand, and the ideological warfare between Communism and true democracy, on the other."

"We must be strong in a military sense," Mather said, "but at the same time, to destroy the ideas of Communism here by physical force would mean a disastrous defeat for the high ideals of freedom which I am sure are as dear to Father Ryan as they are to me."

One of Ryan's reasons for attacking Mather was the latter's reputed "association" with groups on the government's "blacklist." Ryan insisted that a simple repudiation of such association from Mather would have "cleared the paths." When this was not received and Mather withdrew his acceptance, Ryan assumed that such conditions were not 'satisfactory."

This list was compiled to screen people for government jobs, remarked Mather, and was being used by "self-appointed censors" for other purposes. The McCarran Act, he said, provides for judicial hearings on charges of being "subversive," and so far, the Attorney General has certified only one organization in this manner--the Communist Party.

Mather Defends Connections

Mather added that he has never been associated with groups "dominated by Communists, Fascists, or others who are dangerous to the American way of life."

Ryan's letter concluded by censuring the Syracuse paper, the Daily Orange, for slanting their report of his views and involving the Catholic Church. He said that anti-Catholic sentiments were "the order of the day" on the campus, and that Paul Blanshard's "American Freedom and Catholic Power" was "more quoted than the Bible."

He claimed that students "have been indoctrinated with fantastic misunderstandings of the purpose of the Catholic Church," and charged that the editors of the paper were "busy about the nefarious task of sowing seeds of suspicion among Americans of diverse religious beliefs."

"Presumably," said Mather, "it was better to sacrifice a fundamental principle of democracy than to destroy the fragile life of the inter-faith movement that has been so carefully nurtured over the years, for it was precisely that sacrifice which occurred."