The college student was walking through campus when he bumped into his former parish priest. The transfer student, Deacon Robert C. Renner, hadn’t realized there was a campus ministry at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg until the priest and university chaplain, Father Christopher T. Vaccaro, invited him to join during that chance encounter. Nurtured by the Catholic community there and the faith formation he received as a child, Deacon Renner discerned his call to the priesthood.
He was born Sept. 4, 1994, in Arlington to Chris and Lambie Renner, the last of their four children. The family attended Holy Spirit Church in Annandale and the children attended the parish school. At Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, he participated in soccer, track, the video production club, the pro-life club and the nap club, which he founded.
“Really, it was just an excuse to make a silly club with my friends, but we legitimized it in a couple ways,” he said. “We did a fundraiser where we sold T-shirts and pajama pants, and the money that we made we donated to a company that buys mosquito nets for children in Africa or other risk areas for malaria so that way they can sleep in peace.”
At Mary Washington, the Fellowship of Catholic University Student (FOCUS) missionaries helped him deepen his faith life, and a suggestion that he should consider the priesthood kicked off his discernment. He graduated in 2016 with a degree in geography and spent the summer as a backcountry guide in the Colorado Rockies before entering Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., that year.
After his priestly ordination, Deacon Renner will be parochial vicar of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Fredericksburg. “There are five men in the rectory so I’m looking forward to fraternity with those men, but also I know the faith of the people in that parish and it’s going to be a wonderful assignment,” he said.
As Deacon Renner started discerning during the Year of Mercy, he’s looking forward to hearing confessions. “Personally, confession has been a necessity, a place of great growth and grace, so I’m excited to be on the other side of the screen,” he said.
His first Mass of thanksgiving will be celebrated at Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the parish’s feast. Coincidentally, Father John M. O’Donohue, pastor, was parochial vicar at the church when Deacon Renner was a boy. “It’s going to be beautiful,” he said.
