Odilo Scherer

Odilo Pedro Scherer (; born Otto Pedro Scherer; 21 September 1949) is a Brazilian cardinal of the Catholic Church. Since 2007 he has been the Archbishop of São Paulo, where he was auxiliary bishop from 2001 to 2007. From 1994 to 2001 he worked in the Roman Curia at the Congregation for Bishops.

Pope Benedict XVI made him a cardinal in 2007. Scherer was mentioned in the international media as a possible contender to succeed Benedict in 2013. When, in 2024, Scherer submitted his resignation as required at the age of 75, Pope Francis asked him to serve for two more years.

He has been described as "an intellectual with great command of finance and economics" and "on the bookish side". In style he is reserved. He eschews the politics and language of liberation theology, but preaches and practices an evangelism devoted to the suffering of the poor and open to lay participation and charismatic movements. (Scherer has visited the German town from which his ancestors emigrated several times, as recently as 2003, and he speaks the local dialect of German.) On 7 December 1976 he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Toledo He received his episcopal consecration on 2 February 2002 Alateia later said he proved impressive as secretary general of the CNBB for his "polished training, his calm demeanor, or his firm authoritativeness when needed".

Pope Benedict XVI named Scherer Archbishop of São Paulo on 21 March 2007. He was installed there on 29 April 2007, becoming ex officio the Grand-Chancellor of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP). Asked at a 27 April news conference to assess the tension between the Vatican and the Latin American liberation theology movement that had long been contentious, he praised the movement for making the Church focus on poverty and social justice, while faulting its occasional reliance on Marxist analysis. About this time he also criticized the excesses of the charismatic movement as exemplified by Marcelo Rossi, a popular priest. Scherer said that "Priests aren't showmen.... The Mass is not to be transformed into a show." In early May he lost the election for president of the CNBB, as the bishops chose to demonstrate their independence from the Vatican rather than endorse Benedict's choice for their largest diocese. He then served from 2007 to 2011 as a member of the CNBB's commission for doctrine, and since 2007 has served continuously as a member of the CNBB's permanent council. Scherer was elevated to the College of Cardinals in the consistory held on 24 November 2007. He was assigned to the order of cardinal-priests with the title of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale. On 12 June 2008, Benedict named him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to the newly formed Cardinals Commission on the Vatican Bank in 2008 His service ended when Francis replaced four of the five members on the commission in January 2014 after less than a year as pope.

On 24 June 2008 he was named as one of pope's appointees to the October 2008 meeting of the Synod of Bishops. He was elected to the secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. He participated in the October 2014 synod as a member of its general council. He joined in the October 2015 synod as one of the elected representatives of Brazil's bishops.

He was named to the presidential council of the Pontifical Council for the Family on 31 January 2009. He was appointed to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America on 8 October 2009.

Scherer has periodically objected to legal developments with respect to abortion in Brazil. In September 2008, he warned of the dangers of granting exceptions to the principle of the preservation of life as the Brazil Supreme Court considered allowing abortion in cases of anencephaly.

He has opposed attempts to enforce more restrictive concepts of the separation of church and state, arguing that traditional expressions do not represents attempts to establish or privilege one religion and have little impact on non-believers. In 2009, Scherer argued that removing crucifixes in public places would not be in the best interests of Brazilian secularism. In 2012 he objected to the removal of a phrase acknowledging the existence of a Supreme Being on Brazilian currency.

When Pope Benedict established the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization in June 2010, Scherer explained it was meant to address a global "evangelization deficit" and underscore the Church's mission. On 5 January 2011, he was appointed among the first members of the newly created Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation.

He was president of one of the CNBB's regions, the State of São Paulo, from 2011 to 2015. Scherer was mentioned in the international media as a possible contender to succeed Benedict, and he received some votes. The Catholic Herald called him "perhaps the most prominent Latin American candidate".

On 30 November 2013, Pope Francis named him a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education.

In 2016, during the health crisis caused by the Zika virus, Scherer spoke frankly about the use of contraception. Where his colleague Bishop Leonardo Ulrich Steiner emphasized that Pope Francis' endorsement of contraception for disease prevention did not represent a change in the Church's prohibition against birth control, Scherer said: "Couples know very well how to prevent an undesired pregnancy", and added that the Church already gives "a lot of space to the personal decision" to prevent conception.

In the increasingly polarized political environment of 21st-century Brazil, he has had to contend with occasional political attacks. In October 2017, he rejected criticism of his support for distributing a controversial food supplement to the poor. He noted that the Church backed it since 2013, years before local politicians, so the mayor of São Paulo João Doria, who took office in 2017, was joining the work of the archdiocese rather than winning support from the Church. He described the Church's efforts in support of legislation to make it easier for grocers and restaurants to donate food and challenged his critics: "I feel offended when people compare this to animal food, as if we had contempt towards the poor. Contempt is to refuse food to the poor. Starvation is contempt. Contempt is when we politicize the hunger of the poor instead of helping the poor." In 2019, when opponents of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon charged that an interfaith religious service celebrating the Synod constituted "left-wing activism", Scherer allowed that there had been a dispute between demonstrators but minimized it as "the beginning of a disturbance" and distanced the service from the actions of individuals. He said: "Everything happened in complete serenity.... The ones who assert it was a 'mess' and a 'profanity' are far from the truth."

Since May 2019 Scherer has been the representative of the CNBB to the Episcopal Conference of Latin America (CELAM) Pope Francis named him a member of the Council for the Economy on 6 August 2020.

In March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Scherer initially kept churches open in his archdiocese, scheduling more frequent liturgical celebrations to reduce the size of the gatherings and recommending that the elderly and those at risk attend virtually. On 21 March, he suspended all celebrations with a congregation present. In May, as the number of sick continued to increase, he defended his decision even as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro minimized the health problem and was supported by evangelical pastors and some Protestant groups. Traditionalist Catholics argued for public Masses as well. Scherer's stance was supported by local government officials.

On 25 October 2023, Scherer was named to a four-year term as one of 21 members of CELAM's Center for Information and Research Management.

In November 2023, he suspended a priest who refused to retract statements calling Scherer and Pope Francis "heretics" and refusing to abide by restrictions on the use of the pre-Vatican II liturgy. On social media he put the liturgy issue in a broader context: "The problem is not simply the 'Tridentine Mass,' but the denial of the Second Vatican Council.... From denial of the Council we then go to denial of the Pope’s legitimacy. And from there, there is chaos in the Church. The rite of the Sacraments, including the Eucharist, is not a matter of subjective personal conscience. It is the responsibility of the Magisterium of the Church, which we can only accept and obey."

Scherer submitted his resignation as archbishop as required when he turned 75 in September 2024. Pope Francis declined it, asking him to remain for two more years.

Scherer was one of 133 cardinal electors who participated in the 2025 papal conclave, which elected Pope Leo XIV.

Scherer is the Grand Prior of the São Paulo Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Writings His principal works are: Justo sofredor: uma interpretação do caminho de Jesus e do discípulo, Ed. Loyola, 1995. Reflexões sobre Fé e Política, Edições CNBB, 2018.