(Photo Credit Wikicommons)
By Fr.Parker Love
For the past month or so, much of the internet has been aflutter with the recent conversion of Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf. Labeouf is probably most famous for his childhood role as Louis in the Disney Channel series, Even Stevens, and as the human protagonist in the earliest live-action Transformers movies. If you don’t know him from those things, you might know him from the scandals that followed him for the past half-decade as he struggled with mental health issues and addiction, and was accused of abuse by multiple former romantic partners.
In early 2022, in the pursuit of studying for the titular role in Abel Ferrara’s film, Padre Pio, LaBeouf began living with Capuchin Friars near Hollywood as he prepared for the role. In August, Bishop Robert Barron debuted an almost ninety-minute-long interview with LaBeouf, detailing how this study led to his conversion. Shortly after, another interview was posted with LaBeouf by Jon Bernthal. Bernthal, another Hollywood star best known for the gritty action roles he plays; perhaps should be best known for the very authentic and challenging conversations he shares with a large audience in his podcast called “Real Ones.”
As a convert myself, I was deeply intrigued by the story of this soul that had lived so much of life without direct knowledge of Christ; and how that new relationship changed the life of the one who found it. That said, I have kind of fallen down a rabbit hole with LaBeouf’s conversion. I find myself clicking on any new Reddit Post, reading any new interview, and examining any new commentary in an attempt to learn more about this particular conversion.
The reason I’m so driven by this particular conversion is that, in most posts and commentaries, I see a real misrepresentation of Labeouf’s conversion, and I’m desperate for one that will present the whole picture. Unsatisfied with the attempts of others, I will endeavour to provide my own.
Much attention in LaBeouf’s extensive interview was given to his comments on the Latin Mass. Shortly after Bishop Barron published his interview, NCROnline reported that Cardinal Arthur Roche, the head of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, that is to say, the person in the Catholic Church with the most power relating to the celebration of Mass short of Pope Francis himself, sought a conversation with Labeouf about his comments and what about the Latin Mass moved him and his spirit.
The problem I have is that just as LaBeouf describes being moved by the traditional Latin Mass, he also acknowledges how the Ordinary, that is to say, English speaking Mass, moves him in a similar way, as long as it is still celebrated reverently and that there are no superficial performative elements to it. It’s reasonable to assume that his comments about the Mass that are getting so much attention actually apply to any Mass that is reverently celebrated, with attention aimed directly at Christ and not any of the celebrants or other ministers.
And LaBeouf has said some really moving things about the Mass. He described it as the “sharing of some profound secret” that is available to anyone; he said that the Mass offers him “genuine emotional experiences” and that the reverent action of the Priest really offers him immersion in an experience of God. Perhaps most succinctly, LaBeouf says that the Mass feels like one of the only places in the world that “doesn’t feel like they are trying to sell me a car.” That is to say, the Mass offers him (and us) something for free and more valuable than the material wealth with which the world seems obsessed. The move by many Catholics to make his comments on the Latin Mass seem as if they were presented in contradiction to the Ordinary Mass seems to, at least, an example of the objectification of a real soul on a real journey and, at worst, an attempt to sew further division in the Church.
There are a couple of good examples of Catholic media that have encouraged the faithful to be patient with LaBeouf, and they acknowledge that anything might happen in his future. At the same time, there seems to me to be a need, too, to be more than patient with LaBeouf; there is a need to pray for him, and to pray for him hard.
If you’ve journeyed with converts before, you might know that many struggle to keep their converted faith. They are challenged by the lack of faith they find in other members of the Church; they are enslaved again by the sins of their past; they continue to seek when what they want has actually already been found. By emphasizing a distinction that doesn’t exist in LaBeouf’s comments, we might instead be leading this neophyte further into these struggles rather than a deeper experience of his faith.
I don’t know LaBeouf, and I doubt anyone reading this does either, but we are called to pray for him and all converts; indeed, as faithful Catholics, we are called to make more converts. In this pursuit of new converts, though, we aren’t called to make these new Catholics just like us but rather like the version of themselves that God is calling them to be. This authentic invitation means acceptance of difference; difference in liturgical preferences, spiritual and corporal works, and the saint that each of us is called to be. The unfolding drama of LaBeouf’s conversion reminds us all to meet converts where they are, to not try to sell them the faith, but to count on them being motivated by authentic worship.
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Fr Parker Love is a Priest for the Archdiocese of Regina. Ordained in the summer of 2019, Fr Parker serves as Pastor at St Augustine Parish in Wilcox, Saskatchewan and as the Archdiocese’s Vocation Director. Somehow, in the midst of this, he still finds too much time to consume media in the form of books, tv shows, and movies. To justify that over indulgence, he also (occasionally) hosts a podcast called Cold Drinks, Questions, and Christ, which can be found here, or anywhere you get podcasts. |
