In this Nov. 3, 2019, file photo, Shia LaBeouf arrives at the 23rd Annual Hollywood Film Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. LeBeouf switched to Catholicism after appearing on New Year’s Eve at a Mass presided over by the Capuchin Franciscan friars. The Capuchin Franciscan Province of Western America announced the news on its Facebook site where it posted photographs of a smiling LeBeouf receiving communion, kneeling with his eyes closed in prayer during Mass and hugging brothers who attended the ceremony. (Photo via Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, record)
Actor Shia LaBeouf has converted to Catholicism after being confirmed on New Year’s Eve at a Mass presided over by Capuchin Franciscan friars.
The Capuchin Franciscans-Western American Province announced the news on its Facebook site where it posted images of a smiling LeBeouf receiving Communion, kneeling with his eyes shut in prayer at Mass, and hugging friars who attended the ceremony.
The sacramental ceremony was held at Old Mission Santa Inés Parish in Solvang, California, the same friary where LaBeouf trained for months for his role as one of Italy’s best-known and most revered saints in the 2022 film, “Padre Pio.”
“The Capuchin Franciscan friars are very happy to welcome him among them and to bear witness to their deep commitment to the adventure of faith,” the Catholic order said.
LaBeouf “embarked on a profound spiritual adventure that led him to embrace the teachings of the Catholic Church,” the order says. “His decision to enter fully into the Church testifies to his honest preference to grow in his relationship with God and live the values of the Gospel. “
LaBeouf first rose to fame as a teenager on Disney Channel’s “Even Stevens” and is known for his roles in 2007’s “Transformers” and 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. “He also starred in the 2019 film “The Peanut Butter Falcon. “”
He has had several run-ins with the law throughout his career, adding a 2017 arrest in New York City for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct that was captured on live-streamed video. He was sent to judicial rehabilitation.
LaBeouf, who admitted to being an alcoholic and accused of abuse through an ex-girlfriend, spent months at the California convent preparing for his role in “Padre Pio. “
The actor said the opportunity to play the mystical Capuchin monk, best known for exposing the “stigmata” of Christ’s wounds (bleeding from his hands, feet and sides), was a miracle for him personally.
LaBeouf’s confirmation godfather, Capuchin friar Brother Alexander Rodriguez, told the Catholic news agency that the actor needs to become a deacon “in the future” and that he began contemplating the diaconate with the filming of the film about the friar. Franciscan.
Padre Pio died in 1968 and was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II, becoming one of the most popular saints in Italy, the United States and beyond.
The Friars Minor Capuchin are a Catholic male order animated through St. Francis of Assisi. On their website they state that their life project is to serve the handicapped and to live the Gospel “through fraternity, simplicity and contemplative prayer. “
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