ANDRÉ REGNIER was born on November 10, 1960 and raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He attended the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon where he wrestled at the national level with the varsity team and completed his Bachelors of Psychology. While at university, though busy studying and wrestling on the varsity team, he was in search of Christian fellowship. Although he met many wonderful, zealous and authentic young people from Evangelical churches and campus clubs, he wished that those same opportunities to grow in faith were available in a Catholic context. Not finding any, he felt called to start something new.
André, along with his wife Angèle, founded Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO) in Saskatoon in 1988. For almost 3 decades CCO has been affecting change in the lives of the students to whom it ministers, calling them to deeper conversion and a Christ-centred life. In 2015, André and Angèle were awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal for distinguished service to the Church. This is the highest medal that can be awarded to laity by the Pope.
André has led countless international missions, including ones to the Philippines, Poland, and Uganda. In Uganda he helped to establish an ongoing CCO presence on campuses that still remains active today. In 2016, he and Angèle led a CCO team at World Youth Day (WYD) in Krakow. Working with the International Centre for Evangelization (ICE), the team shared 1 million copies of The Ultimate Relationshipbooklet in 10 different languages and evangelized people from all over the world who attended the WYD festivities.
André is currently working on his Masters in Theology from the Augustine Institute. He has written two books, Catholic Missionary Identity and Five Tenets to Renew the World, and is a motivating and engaging presenter who speaks nationally and internationally. His desire is to draw people to a deeper conversion to the person of Jesus Christ, and to be a catalyst for them to embrace the Church’s evangelical mission. He and Angèle live in Ottawa and have five children and two grandchildren.