Fr. Feeney Cancels Lecture, Turns Fifty Students Away

More than fifty people, most of them Harvard and Radcliffe students, gathered outside St. Benedict Center between 8 and 8:30 p.m. last night to hear the Rev. Leonard Feeney, S. J., but were turned away by Fr. Feeney himself.

The priest arrived at 8:30 p.m. with Fahkri Maluf, one of the three teachers dismissed from Boston College, and spoke briefly to the crowd. "I want to thank all of you," he said, "for your kind sympathy and understanding, but there will be no meeting tonight. I am extremely sorry."

Shortly after, approximately fifteen people were admitted to the Center. Thursday is the regular night for Fr. Feeney's public lecture and meeting. A sign on the door of the Center announced, "Closed to the Public, open only to members of the school." Students of the College who attempted to get in before the arrival of Fr. Feeney were turned away at the door.

A phone call to the Center made earlier in the evening had been greeted by the announcement that a meeting definitely would take place. Nevertheless the janitor of the building, the sign on the door, and Fr. Feeney all maintained the contrary.