Albany’s New Bishop Is Fmr. St. Matthias Pastor
Pope Francis nominated the former pastor of Ridgewood’s St. Matthias Church to lead the Diocese of Albany, The Vatican announced on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
Msgr. Edward Scharfenberger, a Bushwick native who led the Catalpa Avenue church for 14 years and served as Queens’ vicar for the Diocese of Brooklyn, was named Bishop of Albany, succeeding the retiring Bishop Howard J. Hubbard.
“How grateful I am to His Holiness Pope Francis for the awesome privilege to serve as pastor of all the wonderful people in the Diocese of Albany,” Bishop-elect Scharfenberger said in a statement released by the Diocese of Albany Tuesday. “It is humbling when I think that I soon will be counted among the successors of the Lord’s Apostles. I am not worthy of this office and I hope that our priests, deacons, religious and lay people will pray for me often as together we continue along our journey of faith.”
Scharfenberger’s roots in Brooklyn and Queens run deep. Born in 1948 in Bushwick, he is an alumnus of the former Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal School in Ridgewood and Cathedral Preparatory Seminary High School in Elmhurst.
After graduating from Cathedral Prep in 1965, Scharfenberger attended the Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception in Douglaston, graduating with an English major in 1968. He then traveled overseas to Rome and earned a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology from the North American College in 1972.
One year later, Scharfenberger was ordained a priest during a ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City by Bishop James Hickey, who would later become a cardinal and leader of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
Following ordination, Scharfenberger traveled back home to New York and served stints at Maspeth’s St. Stanislaus Church and Dyker Heights’ St. Ephrem Church. He would return to Rome in 1976 for further studies, then was assigned a year later to the Catholic University of America, where he earned a judicial canon law degree.
Scharfenberger became a legal eagle in both canon and secular law (he received a law degree from Fordham University in May 1990 and entered the New York State Bar Association one year later). He served the Diocese of Brooklyn for 10 years as judicial vicar, with responsibilities including providing canon law counsel to the bishop and overseeing a marriage tribunal.
For the last 15 years, Scharfenberger served as chaplain for the Kings County Catholic Lawyers Guild and as administrator of the Brooklyn diocese’s Board of Mediation and Arbitration. He was also a member of the Diocesan Review Board for Sexual Abuse of Minors, which investigates cases of alleged sexual misconduct by priests.
Before being appointed pastor of St. Matthias Church in 2002, Scharfenberger served in the same capacity at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Forest Hills and St. Matthew Church in Dix Hills, L.I. In the latter part of his service at St. Matthias, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio named him episcopal vicar of Queens and the vicar for strategic planning.
Scharfenberger’s assignment as St. Matthias pastor ended earlier this year; he was succeeded by Msgr. Peter Zendzian.
DiMarzio applauded the news of Scharfenberger’s Albany appointment in a statement issued Tuesday.
“First and foremost, Monsignor Scharfenberger is a good priest,” he said. “He is primarily concerned about people and is untiring in finding new ways to proclaim the message of redemption which is at the heart of the Gospel. Monsignor Scharfenberger has been a close collaborator and friend. He has vast pastoral and administrative experience. I offer my prayers for Monsignor Scharfenberger as he undertakes his Episcopal ministry.”
DiMarzio also congratulated Scharfenberger’s 93-year-old parents, Elaine and Edward of upstate Warwick, “who are both blessed to see this joyful day, for raising such a fine Christian gentleman, for giving the Diocese of Brooklyn a great priest and for giving the Church a holy bishop.”
Scharfenberger expressed his “gratitude to God” for his parents “who were generous enough to welcome me, my two brothers and two sisters into this world.”
“They taught us how to pray, to trust God and to know Jesus as our friend,” he said. “Their continuous example shows us that the essence of love is sacrifice.”
The Diocese of Albany includes the upstate counties of Albany, Columbia, Delaware, Fulton, Greene, Herkimer, Montgomery, Ostego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren and Washington.
Bishop-elect Scharfenberger is scheduled to be installed at a special Mass on Apr. 10 at Albany’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
Editor’s note: The Diocese of Albany provided biographical information about Scharfenberger.
