The Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf is seeking to becoming a Catholic deacon after receiving the sacrament of confirmation on New Year’s Eve.
A California-based chapter of the Capuchin Franciscans, a Catholic religious order, shared the news in a Facebook post on Tuesday alongside photos of the 37-year-old actor smiling next to several of the organization’s members.
“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 Capuchin Franciscan friars are overjoyed to welcome him into the fold and witness his deep commitment to his faith journey,” the order’s Western America Province said.
“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. 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,” it added.
Bishop Robert Barron of the Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, diocese confirmed LaBeouf, the Catholic News Agency reported.
Speaking to the CNA, LaBeouf’s confirmation sponsor – Capuchin friar Alexander Rodriguez – said that the actor wanted to become a deacon “sometime in the future”.
Rodriguez said LaBeouf’s inspiration to become confirmed within the Catholic faith stemmed from his recent film Padre Pio, in which the actor plays the Italian Capuchin friar Pio of Pietrelcina.
According to Rodriguez, who portrays another friar in the film, LaBeouf “just spontaneously said, ‘I want to become a deacon’ – and he still feels that way.’”
LaBeouf’s confirmation ceremony took place at Old Mission Santa Inés parish in Solvang, California, the same church where LaBeouf first went to train for his role in Padre Pio, CNA reported.
In a CNA interview last June, LaBeouf spoke of his filming experiences, saying: “It’s enormous pressure, but it only served the film … There are scenes where we’re running mass and these aren’t actors in the seats. These are God-fearing people who love Pio and you feel it, and it only adds to the stakes.
“I have never, in the course of my entire career, been on a set where the film felt easier to make.”
LaBeouf added: “I think we made a beautiful film as a result of following his teachings and really leaning into the pragmatic way in which he dealt with the world … It’s probably why I love Catholicism, because it’s so nuts and bolts.”
LaBeouf was born to a Catholic father and a Jewish mother. He was baptized as a child and had a barmitzvah when he was 13.
LaBeouf’s Hollywood career spans more than 20 years, with the actor starring in films which includes Holes, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and three Transformer movies.
In 2020, LaBeouf was accused of physical, mental and emotional abuse by his former partner, the British musician FKA twigs, who he dated for about a year after they met on the set of his 2019 semi-biographical film Honey Boy.
According to a lawsuit filed by twigs, LaBeouf knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease, and launched verbal assaults and physical attacks, including strangulation.
In an interview with the New York Times, the singer said her experience with LaBeouf “was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life”.
LaBeouf’s legal team denied the allegations in 2021. More than a year later, LaBeouf addressed about the allegations during a podcast with Hollywood actor Jon Bernthal, saying, “I hurt that woman”, without mentioning twigs.
“And in the process of doing that, I hurt many other people, and many other people before that woman. I was a pleasure-seeking, selfish, self-centered, dishonest, inconsiderate, fearful human being,” he said. “I fucked up bad.”
