Jean Francois Thibeault: Former Hare Krishna Priest

Jean-Francois was brought up in a Catholic family in Montreal, in which he was sacramentalized but not catechized. As a teen he grew increasingly rebellious, especially after a religion teacher invited him to attend a Marxist youth camp. At the age of eighteen, he left Canada and eventually ended up in Berkeley where he studied eastern religions and joined the Hare Krishna community to which he belonged for the next 15 years. Later, as a priest in the Hara Krishna compound in West Virginia, it was his daily duty to dress the idols. His heart was turned back to Christ and his Church after he read “Divine Mercy in My Soul” by St. Maria Faustina Kowalska.