Florida Catholic | Obituary :: Father Richard P. Scherer

OBITUARY

Father Richard P. Scherer, 83

The former hospital chaplain who ministered at Holy Cross and Mercy hospitals was known as a ‘people priest’.

Published: 01.11.08

MIAMI | Those who worked with Father Richard P. Scherer remember him as a “people person” who loved serving as a hospital chaplain and whose ministry extended beyond the patients to include everyone on the hospital’s staff.

“He was loved by all,” said Sister Immaculate Moraglia, a Sister of St. Joseph who worked with Father Scherer at Mercy Hospital in Miami from his arrival there in 1975 until his retirement from active ministry in 1992.

“Everybody … from doctors to nurses to environmental people, they all would light up any time Father (Scherer) would pass by. He knew almost everyone’s first name. Even when he retired and he would come for doctor’s appointments, the same reaction,” said Sister Moraglia, a chaplain in Mercy’s pastoral care department. “He really was a person who loved people.”

Father Scherer died Dec. 21, 2007, at age 83. A Pittsburgh native who came to the Archdiocese of Miami in 1968, he had been a priest for 58 years, and a full-time hospital chaplain for 24 years.

“He was a person who gave himself to people,” said Sister Mary Damian Waldron, a Sister of Mercy who serves as data input coordinator at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, where Father Scherer served as chaplain from 1968 to 1975. “He was everybody’s priest. Anyone who needed anything, he was there.”

Even after his retirement, Sister Waldron said, Father Scherer made himself available to as many as seven parishes, filling in whenever a priest was needed.

“He kept going,” she said. “You would never know there was anything wrong with him,” even though he had undergone two heart-bypass surgeries since 1983 and also suffered from arthritis.

“He was very generous, had a great sense of humor,” said Hadson Solis, manager of pastoral care at Mercy Hospital. “He was very dedicated to employees. They all admired the way he treated people with care and with compassion. He was always there to listen to their issues and walk with them in their struggles. Everybody has great memories of him.”

Born Aug. 10, 1924, Father Scherer was ordained for the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1949. He served as parochial vicar in several parishes in the Pittsburgh area and also was active in religious vocational programs and the Catholic Committee on Scouting.

His yearning for work in the health care ministry was fulfilled when he came to Miami, where he also served as archdiocesan director of ministry to the sick from 1971 until 1984. Other assignments included priest moderator of the Catholic Physicians Guild, chaplain to the Council of Nurses, and director of the respect life program in the Province of Miami.

After retirement, he served as chaplain to Knights of Columbus Council 1726 and was in residence at St. Kieran Parish in Miami.

Father Scherer is survived by two brothers, William F. and Kenneth A. Scherer; a sister, Jean L. Mosesso; and 19 nieces and nephews. A viewing and funeral Mass were celebrated Dec. 27, 2007, at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Miami, followed by another viewing and Mass at St. Wendelin Parish in Pittsburgh, with burial in the parish cemetery.

Contributions in Father Scherer’s memory may be made to Holy Cross Hospital, 4725 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308.

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OBITUARY

Father Richard P. Scherer, 83

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