By Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
July 26, 2007
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=14322
Brooklyn — The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has named Monsignor Edward Scharfenberger as a Promoter of Justice. Msgr. Scharfenberger is a familiar figure to the Brooklyn legal community as the moderator for the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Kings County. He has for several years celebrated the Red Mass at St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn Heights.
"The Promoter of Justice serves as a kind of prosecutor in cases pertaining to canon law that come before the Diocese," said Frank DeRosa, spokesman for the Diocese of Brooklyn. He tries to promote the common good in church trials and presents a case before a judge of a church court, always working to assure that everyone receives due process.
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| Msgr. Edward Scharfenberger, second from left, with attorney Gregory Hesterberg, far left, and Brooklyn attorneys Gregory Cerchione and Frank Composto at St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn Heights for the Red Mass in October 2006. Eagle file photo |
Msgr. Scharfenberger, 59, is a Brooklyn native and pastor of St. Matthias Church in Ridgewood, Queens. He is both a canon lawyer, with a degree from Catholic University in Washington, and a civil lawyer, with a degree from Fordham Law School. He studied in Rome at the North American College, Gregorian University and the Alphonsianum University. He was ordained a priest in Rome in 1973.
"I have known Msgr. Scharfenberger for close to 20 years, and in my mind he epitomizes the concept of justice," said Frank Composto, a partner in the Brooklyn Heights law firm Composto & Composto and a past president of the Catholic Lawyers Guild. Msgr. Scharfenberger "has an analytical mind which allows him to understand all of the issues presented, yet he has never lost his great pastoral qualities, so that he ministers to his people with justice tempered by kindness."
Msgr. Scharfenberger is the former head of the Diocesan Tribunal and was one of eight members of a Diocesan Review Board on sexual abuse of a minor by a clergyman. The board was established in 2002 as a confidential consultative body to the bishop after the clergy sexual abuse scandal in Boston, and has examined more than two dozen cases in Brooklyn and Queens.
The former diocesan Promoter of Justice, Msgr. William Varvaro of St. Margaret's Church, Middle Village, Queens, also participated on that board, consistent with the "Essential Norms" for diocesan policies. Msgr. Varvaro died in January. He had served as Promoter of Justice for more than 10 years. Msgr. Scharfenberger was appointed by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio.
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