Father Steven S. Scherrer, MM

Born: September 2, 1945
Ordained: May 27, 1972
Died: March 25, 2024

Father Steven S. Scherrer died on March 25, 2024 in the Assisted Living Unit at Maryknoll, New York. He was 78 years old and a Maryknoll priest for 51 years.

Steven Schludecker Scherrer was born on September 2, 1945, at Craig Field Air Force Base in Selma, Alabama, where his father, Master Sergeant Joseph P. Scherrer, was being discharged from active military duty in the Aleutian Islands during the Second World War. His mother was Marianna Schludecker Scherrer. He has one sister, Stephanie Chapman. Steven attended Mount Carmel Grammar School in Redwood City, California and Serra High School in San Mateo. He entered St. Joseph’s College Seminary in Mountain View, California in 1963 and the Maryknoll College Seminary in Glen Ellyn, Illinois in September 1965, where he earned a BA in Philosophy in 1967. While at Maryknoll Seminary, New York, in 1972 he earned a BD and an MTh in Theology. Father Scherrer was ordained at Maryknoll New York, on May 27, 1972.

Father Scherrer was assigned to the Education Department after ordination and did doctoral studies at Harvard Divinity School, obtaining a doctorate (ThD) in New Testament and Christian Origins in 1979. During his doctoral studies, he spent three summers teaching introduction to Old Testament and New Testament to the Maryknoll Novitiate in Hingham, Massachusetts. After receiving his Doctoral Degree he was assigned to the Maryknoll Mission Region in Tanzania where he did pastoral work at Sayu Sayu Catholic Church in Shinyanga Diocese. Father Scherrer then taught New Testament in the Regional Major Seminary (St. Charles Lwanga Senior Seminary, Segerea) in Dar es Salaam. He also taught several scripture courses at Maryknoll School of Theology, Maryknoll, New York, for one year.  Father Scherrer returned to Africa in 1984, assigned to the Maryknoll Mission Region in Kenya. There, he lived among nomads in a semi-desert area among the Turkana people in Lodwar Diocese in northern Kenya until 1992.

In January of 1993, Father Scherrer began the process of incardination into the monastic Carthusian Order. In May 1993 Father Scherrer was assigned to the U.S Region. At this time he left Maryknoll and took up residence at the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration in Arlington, Vermont. After five years however, he left the Carthusians and returned to Maryknoll, New York. In January 1999 Father Scherrer began an experimental assignment in Anchorage, Alaska, where he did pastoral ministry. After serving a year in this assignment, in 2000 he began the process of incardination into the Trappists at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. He was sent by that monastery as Chaplain to the Trappistine Sisters’ Monastery of Our Lady of Coromoto in Humocaro Alto, Venezuela, where he served for four years before returning to Conyers for another two years.

In September 2008 due to ill health, Father Scherrer was assigned to the Retirement Community (Senior Missioner Community) and took up residence at Mission St. Teresa’s. There, he continued writing sermons, sending them out daily by email and posting them on his website:  www.DailyBiblicalSermons.com. He wrote The Vicarious, Sacrificial, Atoning Death of Jesus Christ, published by iUniverse. Father Scherrer’s interests were missionary, biblical, ascetical, and contemplative, and this characterized his sermons on his website.

Father Scherrer was appointed to the Mission St. Teresa’s Prayer Partners Team in February 2016. He resided at the Society Center at Maryknoll, New York.

Father Scherrer is survived by his sister, Stephanie (Bob) Chapman, of Visalia, California, as well as a niece, two nephews and several grandnieces and grandnephews.

Wake services were held on April 5, 2024 in the Holy Spirit Chapel and the Queen of Apostles Chapel at the Maryknoll Society Center. Mass of Christian Burial followed at 11:00 a.m. and was concelebrated in the Queen of Apostles Chapel. Father John Lange was the Celebrant and homilist. Brother Mark Gruenke read the biography and Father Juan Zuñiga read the Oath. Burial followed in Maryknoll Society Cemetery with Father James Lynch presiding at the graveside prayers.