Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf shared a significant update with fans about his conversion to Catholicism and said he’s just months away from being confirmed in the religion he said helped him find faith in a dark time in his life.
During the 36-year-old actor’s recent appearance on ChurchPOP, English editor Jacqueline Burkepile asked LaBeouf — who will soon play the late mystic St. Padre Pio in the upcoming film “Padre Pio” — where he’s at in his spiritual journey. LaBeouf said he will soon be receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation.
“I’m in RCIA [Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults],” LaBeouf said. “I’m scheduled to be confirmed in seven months and I hope Bishop [Robert] Barron comes down to confirm me. But we’ll see. I’m in RCIA right now and once a week I get on the horn with Fr. Bobby and we talk shop.”
Last year, the actor appeared on “Bishop Barron Presents: Conversations at the Crossroads” and talked about studying for the Pio role which he said led him to convert, admitting that he always had a belief, but no connection.
LaBeouf said he was “never an atheist,” but instead agnostic and credited “Pio” with saving his “life” at a time he described as “nuclear” because roles had dried up. In 2021, LaBeouf was facing a variety of allegations, including abuse.
In preparation for the role he believed would finally restart his career, the director told LaBeouf he would need to do some research and go to a seminary, The Daily Wire previously reported. LaBeouf ended up going to a seminary near his home and met Brother Jude, who told him if he’s going to play Pio, he needs to read the Gospel. LeBeouf started doing just that at a time when he felt hopeless.
“I had a gun on the table. I was outta here,” the “Holes” star admitted. “I didn’t want to be alive anymore when all of 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 to get like, a taco. … But I was also in this deep desire to hold on.”
“It stops being this prep of a movie and starts being something that feels beyond all that,” he added. “The reach-out had happened. I was already there; I had nowhere to go. This was the last stop on the train. There was nowhere else to go — in every sense.”
“I know now that God was using my ego to draw me to Him,” LaBeouf continued. “Drawing me away from worldly desires. It was all happening simultaneously.”
Related: Shia LaBeouf Discusses Role That Led To His Conversion To Catholicism, ‘Saved My Life’