NY Attorney Has 515 Lawsuits Ready to Go Against the Diocese of Albany

ALBANY, N.Y. (ChurchMilitant.com) - One attorney in Albany, New York, already has 515 lawsuits for clergy sex abuse ready to file against the diocese of Albany once the Child Victims Act goes into effect Aug. 14.

Jennifer Freeman, a senior counsel at Marsh Law Firm with 515 lawsuits lined up to be filed, recently appeared on New York NOW with one of her clients, Gordon Smith, who says he was abused by two priests in the early 1960s.

One of those priests, Fr. Donald Starks, appears on the diocese of Albany's list of credibly accused clergy. He died in 1989.

The two priests began abusing Gordon Smith at St. Patrick's Catholic Church and school in Albany, New York, in the early 1960s when he was 14 years old and substituting as a janitor for his sick father. The abuse continued for about three and a half years.

"It was horrific as it could get," said Smith. "We're talking about molestation, we're talking about sodomization, we're talking about oral sex."

Smith said the priests told him that nobody would believe him if he were to report the abuse. Smith said the priests also threatened to harm his family to scare him into silence, a common strategy of predators.

"They told me, if I ever said a word, first of all, no one would believe me," said Smith. "Then they also said that they would make sure my father never worked again and would ruin my family."

Simple solution: eliminate the edict of celibacy that goes against the Word of God.

In the King James version, the phrase - be fruitful - appears 9 times:

Gen 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Gen 8:17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

Gen 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

Gen 26:22 And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

Gen 35:11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

Gen 41:52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

Jer 23:3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

Hos 13:15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.

The phrase in these two verses are close in meaning

Gen 9:7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

Col 1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

But a POPE knows better than the Lord Almighty?

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