Shia LaBeouf, Padre Pio, and the Divestment of Ego

How Shia LaBeouf found faith and walked away from a gun, the bottle, and haikus written in blood.

In graduate school, the weekends granted a sort of brief reprieve. On slower Saturday mornings, before Amber and I cracked books and dove back into the work, we sat in our tiny living room, ate cereal, and watched two Saturday morning shows: Recess (a cartoon that has aged remarkably well) and Even Stevens, starring a young Shia LaBeouf.

Over the years, we watched LaBeouf grow from that goofy kid actor into a tortured adult artist, one with the almost magical ability to transform the screen. But we’ve also watched as he’s made a mess of his personal life, including accusations of serious abuse.

Last week, the news dropped that LaBeouf got religion, which is to say, he’s become Catholic. It was news that didn’t shock me. LaBeouf claimed religion after shooting Fury with Brad Pitt in 2014. But this time, watching the interviews, something about the Even Stevens actor was qualitatively different. What was the qualitative difference? I’m not sure, except to say it was both sober and compelling.

This morning, I’m sharing two videos—one with all of you, one with only the monthly subscribers (the language in the second video it is pretty rough). Both of these videos capture LaBeouf’s conversion in his own words. For backstory, LaBeouf came to faith through two distinct events. First, he attended an online AA meeting instead of pulling the trigger of a gun. Second, through AA, in an odd twist of events, he met Padre Pio, a Capuchin friar sainted by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

The first video, an interview by Bishop Robert Barron, is long, but take the time to listen to it as you go about your day today. Hear him talk about how Padre Pio inspired transformation, how the twentieth century friar saved his life. Listen as he talks about the gravity of the mass, the anchoring of the eucharist. Pay attention to his words about the ego.

See if this interview doesn’t inspire you to think more critically about your own life, your own devotion, your own commitment to sobriety and divestment of the ego. I know it inspired me.

For more on St. Pio, follow this link.

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