April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
WATERFORD NATIVE

Priest's body found

Priest's body found
Priest's body found
The body of Rev. Rene Robert, a native of Waterford who was a priest of the Diocese of St. Augustine, Fla., was found April 18 in Georgia nearly a week after he'd been reported missing.

Father Robert, 71, had not arrived for a funeral in his diocese April 10, worrying Church officials. When his car was spotted several days later being driven by Steven James Murray, that led to a high-speed chase and manhunt and the arrest of Murray, who led police to the body.

The Associated Press reported April 19 that Murray was expected to be charged with first-degree murder.

Father Robert had close ties to the Albany Diocese, including relatives in the area and friends in the local deaf community. The priest had served as chaplain to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine and did decades of ministry to persons with hearing and visual impairments.

"The deaf community of the Diocese of Albany is deeply saddened by the death of Father Robert," noted Rosemarie Tobin, diocesan consultant for people with disabilities and liaison to the Catholic deaf community. "He was a longtime friend of the community and would visit with them when in the area. He will be remembered with love and fondness. We also pray for his alleged murderer."

Father Robert, an alumnus of St. Mary's School in Waterford and Catholic Central High School in Troy, became a Conventual Franciscan brother in Rensselaer in the 1960s. He went on to become a Franciscan friar, but left the order to become a diocesan priest so he could continue his work at the Florida school when the Franciscans left the St. Augustine Diocese.

The priest held a bachelor's degree in education of the hearing-impaired and a master's degree in education.

While visiting the Albany Diocese in 2001, Father Robert talked with The Evangelist about his hope that the Catholic Church would do more outreach to the Deaf community. He said he was intrigued by American Sign Language, but "it's not so much the language itself; it's the people - reaching out to our Catholic deaf who are isolated from the Church.

"We need to create communities so deaf people don't just have an interpreter, but become lectors, eucharistic ministers -- so they're not just receiving, they're giving as well," he added.

Bernadette Johnson of St. Michael's parish in Troy, whose parents are deaf, told The Evangelist she had known Father Robert for 50 years.

"He did everything he could to be so inclusive for all people," she said. "My mother passed away a couple of years ago. I had him go to the hospital to meet my father, because no one was there to minister to my father and to give her last rites. He really was the person who, when you talk about what God wants you to do, he did it all."

The AP reported that Murray, who has served time in prison before, may have met Father Robert through one of the priest's other ministries: outreach to the unemployed and recently incarcerated.

As The Evangelist went to print, no motive for the crime had been announced.[[In-content Ad]]

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