While the rest of us were dancing or dozing our way into the New Year, Shia LaBeouf was busy becoming Catholic. According to the Catholic News Agency, the actor was officially confirmed into the church on New Year’s Eve.
“The Capuchin Franciscan friars are overjoyed to welcome him into the fold and witness his deep commitment to his faith journey,” the order of friars wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. They added that LaBeouf’s “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.”
LaBeouf was raised by a Catholic father and Jewish mother; he was baptized and had a bar mitzvah. He has said that working on his 2022 film Padre Pio, in which he portrays Pio, the Italian Capuchin friar who was marked by stigmata in 1918, piqued his interest in Catholicism. He previously said that to prepare for the film, he lived in a monastery with Franciscan Capuchin friars. LaBeouf’s sponsor, Capuchin friar Brother Alexander Rodriguez, also told the Catholic News Agency that LaBeouf reportedly wants to be a deacon “sometime in the future.”
LaBeouf’s journey toward Catholicism came after his ex-girlfriend, FKA Twigs, accused him of physical and emotional abuse in 2021. He told the New York Times, “I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say.” The case is scheduled to go to trial in October.
After his mother died in 2022, LaBeouf told The Hollywood Reporter that “her greatest gift to me was to promote, in her dying, the necessity of a relationship with God. Not an interest, not just a belief, but a relationship built on proof as tangible as a hug.” He also said Mel Gibson was a source of support during his turn to religion.
Only time will tell if LaBeouf will share his confirmation name with the world.