It’s a tale fit for the movies
Padre Pio and Shia LaBeouf (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
By now we’re used to seeing celebrities fall, mired in scandals of all types. It’s become an industry in itself (I’m looking at you, TMZ), and sadly we gobble it up like it’s candy on Halloween night. Far less often do we see a story of a celebrity getting back up after a fall, partly because the media finds it far less interesting.
I find it totally captivating, however, which is why over the past few days I have watched more of actor Shia LaBeouf than I would have ever dreamed possible. That’s because Hollywood’s most infamous train wreck was completely transformed (pun intended) by an encounter with one of Italy’s most famous saints, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.
Padre Pio (May 25, 1887–September 23, 1968) was a Franciscan Capuchin friar and mystic. He was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II, and is quite possibly the most beloved saint in all of Italy. LaBeouf will play a young Pio in the upcoming biopic, Padre Pio. The trailer for the film was released this week, and you can see it below.
It seems that as research for the role, LaBeouf decided to learn more about the Italian saint, how Franciscan Capuchin monks live, and Catholicism in general by living with a group of Capuchin friars at their Northern California monastery. He got more than he bargained for, and has converted to Catholicism as a result.
In a lengthy interview with Word on Fire’s Bishop Robert Barron on YouTube, LaBeouf said that finding faith during this research surprised him because going into the film he was focused on his career, not on God. He was particularly affected by his experience of the Latin Mass, which he both attended and learned how to portray on film, since for most of Padre Pio’s life the Latin Mass was the only Mass; Mass in the vernacular was not introduced until after the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s.
His love for the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) has caused no small amount of rejoicing among its devotees online, especially given Pope Francis’s recent moves to limit its use. As is often the case in the ongoing liturgy wars, they are missing the point. While I am happy that the Latin Mass was instrumental in his conversion, the Mass is the is the center of our faith and the source of divine life in any language. But I digress.
You can see in the video interview (and he himself points out) that he is still very new to the faith and has much to learn. They call it a faith journey for a reason; it’s a lifelong process. He also still faces several pending legal cases, something which does not come up in the interview despite its length and wide-ranging topics. This has caused some to label the whole thing a stunt, to which I say watch the interview; he’s not a good enough actor to pull off the earnestness and sincerity evident throughout.
With all the bad news we’re constantly bombarded with, it is heartening to see some positive news about a young man who was apparently on the verge of suicide before God, and Padre Pio, pulled him back from the brink. There is much work still to do, and that work includes a good deal of repentance for past sins (something St. Pio would certainly tell him). But he’s apparently made a turn in the right direction; every journey starts with that first step.
Here is Bishop Barron’s interview with LaBeouf: