CV NEWS FEED // The Capuchin Franciscans announced on January 2 that actor Shia LaBeouf has fully entered the Catholic Church having received the sacrament of Confirmation on New Year’s Eve.
LaBeouf, 37, had a conversion while portraying St. Padre Pio in a movie in 2022. To prepare for the role, he spent time living with Padre Pio’s order, the Capuchin Franciscans, at their monastery in northern California.
In May of 2023, LaBeouf shared that he was taking RCIA classes and was set to receive Confirmation at the end of the year.
“We are thrilled to share that our dear friend Shia LaBeouf has fully entered the Church this past weekend through the sacrament of confirmation!” the Western America Province of Capuchin Franciscans shared on January 2. “The Capuchin Franciscan friars are overjoyed to welcome him into the fold and witness his deep commitment to his faith journey.”
“Shia LaBeouf, known for his incredible talent and passion in the entertainment industry, has embarked on a profound spiritual journey that has led him to embrace the teachings of the Catholic Church,” the friars added. “His decision to fully enter the Church is a testament to his sincere desire to grow in his relationship with God and live out the Gospel values.”
Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota gave LaBeouf the sacrament of Confirmation at the Old Mission Santa Inés in Solvang, California, according to Our Sunday Visitor (OSV).
LaBeouf told OSV News in May that “[learning] how to pray the Rosary” brought a “tangible relief” that he “had previously sought through drugs, alcohol and life in the fast lane.”
“As Capuchin Franciscans,” the friars wrote in their announcement,
we believe in the transformative power of faith and the incredible impact it can have on one’s life. We are humbled and grateful to walk alongside Shia as he takes this important step in his spiritual journey.
We invite you to join us in celebrating this momentous occasion and to keep Shia LaBeouf in your prayers as he continues to deepen his faith and seek God’s guidance in his life. May his example inspire others to explore their own spiritual paths and find solace in the loving embrace of the Church.
Barron interviewed LaBeouf in August 2022 on Word on Fire to discuss his spiritual journey and encounter with Christ.
In the interview, LaBeouf shared that before director Abel Ferrera offered him the role as Padre Pio, his life was at a breaking point. LaBeouf had starred in more than 40 movies and shows, but he stepped away from acting after a “series of public scandals” and fell into hopelessness and thoughts of suicide, per The New York Post.
“I had a gun on the table. I was outta here,” LaBeouf said:
I didn’t want to be alive anymore when all this happened. Shame like I had never experienced before — the kind of shame that you forget how to breathe, you don’t know where to go, you can’t go outside and get like, a taco….
But he also had a “deep desire to hold on.” After accepting the Padre Pio role, LaBeouf spent time living with the friars in San Lorenzo, where he met the order’s assistant vocation director, Brother Alexander Rodriguez.
“Shia was looking to know about Padre Pio, and then delved into the faith,” Rodriguez told OSV. “He got into RCIA (referring to the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults). The friars and I were helping to catechize him.”
LaBeouf told Bishop Barron that he initially accepted the role out of a self-serving desire to save his career.
“I know now God was using my ego to draw me to Him, was drawing me away from these worldly desires,” LaBeouf said:
It was all happening spontaneously. But there would have been no impetus for me to get in the car and drive up here if I didn’t think, “I’m gonna save my career…”
And when I got here [to the monastery], a switch happened. It was like Three-Card Monte. It was like someone tricked me into it, it felt like. Not in a bad way. In a way that I couldn’t see it. I was so close to it that I couldn’t see it. I see it differently now that time has passed.
LaBeouf said the friars encouraged him to go spend time in silence before the Blessed Sacrament, and prayed the rosary with him. While learning to pray the rosary, he said he felt moved to call his mom, who had stopped speaking to him because of the numerous “depraved” things LaBeouf said he had been doing.
He called his mother and was able to begin mending his relationship with her. LaBeouf also said that he began reading St. Augustine’s Confessions, and was greatly moved by the story of Augustine’s relationship with his mother, St. Monica.
Everything began to “click” together, LaBeouf said. He resonated with the story of Augustine, who LaBeouf described as “a hedonist who had all these flaws. And then they started explaining [St.] Francis to me, and all this ego that was in Francis – he’s a complete egomaniac. And I start feeling all these connections…”
“It was seeing other people who had sinned beyond anything I could even conceptualize also being found in Christ that made me feel like, okay, well, that gives me hope,” LaBeouf said.
